Completely Alone
by Dark Rose At Twilight
Summary: After a relaxing summer break, a new sector and A.I appears on Lyoko. She is clueless to who she is and what she’s there for, but they might not learn to trust the new A.I-because they don't know where she goes when Lyoko is calm and Xana isn't active...
1. New Year, New People

_Writer-Dark Rose_

_Disclaimer-I don't own Code Lyoko or characters from it._

_Oh, and I made this character after going to Alaska, so no, she's not named after the movie ; ) but you'll find out what I'm talking about later._

_Oh, this is my first fanfic, so be nice, and I except flames only if they help my writing._

**Autumn-beginning of school**

_**Narrator POV**_

Light came from everywhere-the floor, the ceiling, the walls. The long tower had two platforms, and in the middle of the platforms a girl hovered. She was on her back, floating. Her eyes were closed, pale skin becoming paler from the light. Red and black hair streamed behind her; clashing with the black clothes she wore. Her clothes were similar a karate robe, but black with a white belt. The sleeves and pants were baggier and on her feet she wore sandals. On her back was a giant, wide sword wrapped in cloth attached by a thin red strap and it was about as tall as she was. It had a foot and a half long handle sticking out over her right shoulder and from the top of the handle spread to a flat sword that tapered up at the end (for those of you who watch Bleach, I'm thinking of Ichigo's Zangetsu and a shinigami uniform)

An intense white light filled the tower, seeming to burn everything, yet when it dissipated, all was untouched. The girl opened her eyes. She flipped, as if uncertain about her position. Her eyes widened, she started rising. She landed on the top platform, painfully falling as her feet touched. She stood, walking to the center of the platform. She jumped back, a small blue screen appearing. The girl put her hand on it. Slowly words typed on the screen-A.I.S.U.

"Aisu?" The girl spoke softly. The words went vertical and the letters explained themselves. Application Interpreter Software User. Aisu blinked. The screen widened. She ran off the platform, tensing as the anti-gravity took hold of her. She landed, bit her lip, and ran directly out of the tower. There, she stopped.

The world was a dangerous beauty. Black blades of grass were stood out immeadiatly with a hot orange sky and a setting sun. Several platforms were across the entire view, reachable only by long leaps, and several razor sharp peaks were scattered, some in clusters, only passable by spire jumps. The entire ground seemed to be hidden by shadows and gray mist. And by some instinct-some knowledge, she knew she was the only person, only thing slightly human on this place, this world...

_Lyoko _

It was odd. The entire place-towers, the sea sloshing gently, and the entire 'planet' seemed to be Lyoko.

_Blazen_

The word was strange, but it fit. This place, this area around her seemed to breath the word, grow as the word…it was the word. This place was Blazen. Aisu blinked, holding her head. She slowly turned to where she came and went into the tower, and falling through. The screen, still open, had information on her. Aisu looked at it, and slowly touched a window. There it showed her picture.

**Juno Kasserine Lea**

**15 Years old**

**Born-December 12**

**Mother-died of Cancer**

**Father-business man in the computer industry**

**Siblings-none**

'_What?'_ Aisu looked carefully at the screen. '_Am I Juno or Aisu?_' She looked at it more carefully. Then she saw

**Earth Profile**

'_So…I'm Aisu on Lyoko…And Juno on Earth.'_ She dug through more files, finding a folder named Jeremie B.-Lyoko. She opened it. It was all Lyoko's information. She looked at the screen. '_I wonder what else I can find…'_

_-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

_**Ulrich POV**_

It had been the entire summer break since the last attack from Xana. I was, like Odd and Jeremie, fourteen, and going into my first year of Kadic's high school. I did have a fun summer though…even if Jeremie kept calling me and asking if he should update weapons, change the vehicles. I said he was fine. He didn't think so. So, during the summer he worked on program after program to update the Skid, update weapons, find replicas, and bring William home. Needless to say, that last one…uh…failed. I knew it would be hard to get William back, but I never knew it would be this hard.

Surprisingly, when I arrived back at Kadic, I found myself in the same room with Odd and Kiwi again, three doors away from Jeremie.

"Wow. Lucky break. We have the same dorm!" Odd collapsed onto his bed like a puppet that just had its strings cut. I said nothing and started packing away all my stuff. "Come on! You have to admit this is cool Ulrich." I nodded.

"Sure. I mean, you left Space Wars and Tetris video game here." He leapt to his feet.

"I completely forgot! Thanks Ulrich." He opened a drawer to the beat up desk and rummaged around. He raised his arm in triumph. "Got them!" I laughed, running my fingers through my hair.

"Everything's the same. Including what I bet the cafeteria glop will be like, so another year of indigestion."

"Aww come on, Ulrich, It's not that bad." I glanced at him. "Okay, it is. But it's food!" He leaned down to pet Kiwi. "And my little diggity-dog still has a bed in Ulrich's dresser!"

"Oh, no he doesn't. This year, he's in your dresser. And don't count on me to rescue your dog. I did that enough last year!"

"Aww, please Ulrich?"

"No."

"Please? For Kiwi?" I made the mistake of looking at him. He made the puppy-dog eyes that could probebly make even Jim allow Kiwi at school.

"Fine, but _this year_ only. Understand? Next year, NO!" Odd whooped at the news!.

"Yes!"

_-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

_**Jeremie POV**_

A lot time had passed over the summer. I felt as if I had wasted it, trying to crack codes instead of actually trying them. I couldn't believe how relaxed Ulrich, Odd, Aelita, and Yumi were-only saying 'Sure Jeremie', 'That's fine Jeremie', 'Whatever Jeremie'. Well…they do deserve a break after all. Look has kept everyone busy.

I got switched to a different dorm room, one only three doors away from Odd and Ulrich. It was plain and simple, nearly identical to my other room. The only thing different is that the bed was on the other side. Well, I had just finished setting up my room when Aelita knocked.

"Hey Jeremie." She paused looking in my room. "Guess who I'm next to this year."

"I don't know…Milly?" She laughed.

"Guess again."

"Tamiya?"

"Nope."

"Please say it isn't Sissi."

"No, no. Actually, I'm next to no one! I'm at the end of the hall and the dorm next to me is empty. We can keep all the info on the supercomputer there." I nodded.

"That's a good idea, due to Jim always checking our rooms, and I don't want him to find the programs and tell Delmas." She nodded.

"I have all of my stuff there already, I'll help with yours." I turned around and looked at the stack of boxes. "Are _all_ of those files it?" I nodded and she sighed.

_-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

_**Aisu POV**_

I slowly went out of the tower again. I had been reading the supercomputer data files and, according to the clock, came up with the fact that I had been on this place called Lyoko reading files for…three weeks. Three weeks in the tower. It was time to explore.

I cautiously looked around. It seemed quiet. The ever peaceful land on Blazen seemed untouched since I came out last. I walked a bit. The entire place including the airy and near death spike spires looked like what Earth called a 'video game'.

'_You know, this place is pretty cool_' I walked out a bit more. A red lazar came at me from what seemed like nowhere and hit my arm '_Okay, that was not so cool_' I turned and saw a squarish thing coming toward me. I recognized it as a block. Its head spun and I dodged another lazar.

'_Maybe that's what this is for_' I grabbed the handle of my sword and brought it in front of me. The cloth fell away to reveal a black, razor sharp sword. I deflected another shot. I ran toward it with inhuman speed and slashed at it. the tip hit its eye thing. The Xana symbol. It exploded and I started to put my sword away, cloth wrapping around it automatically before I slung it on my back by a red strap. Then another shot hit me.

'_What the-hey!'_ There were (or had been) two! I didn't have time to get my sword out again. I tried to dodge another beam (ice beam) and instead lost my balance. I waved my arm to center myself, but, surprise, surprise; Lyoko had something else in mind. Red energy fanned out from my fingertips in an arc, hitting the block, and destroying it. Now that, was awesome.

I headed back into the tower, blue screen already opening up for me. I looked at the files it provided before touching it. I scanned a few folders, read a few french newspapers, and then looked at a new place. Programs. There were stacks off them, and I hardly knew what to look at. Finally I decided on one marked in binary code. I tapped the screen.

_Code Earth Activated_

What! I tried to stop it but the codes had already started drifting around me and I was rising. '_Not good!_' I tried desperately to get down, but before I knew it there was a flash, and I was gone.

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_Yeah, that's it for Chapter one. Sorry it's kinda short. But, who knows? maybe you guys liked it...So i gotta work on a paper i've been procrastinating on, so see-ya! Oh, and PLEASE REVEIW!_


	2. Who?

_Okay, this chapter is dedicated to OddObsessed, who was my only reviewer...but i don't really mind._

_Disclaimer 1-I don't own Code lyoko, Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, Jeremie, Kadic, Sissi, Delmas, Jim, Moonscope, Anime...see where i'm going?_

_Disclaimer 2- I don't own the Beatles song 'Help!' it is truely theirs. Not Mine, Not Moonscopes, Not Anyones But THE BEATLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!_

_I was ranting, wasn't I? Oh well. On with the story!_

_**Juno POV**_

I opened my eyes. All I saw was a curtain of black. Just black. I pushed it aside, realizing the wavy black curtain was my own hair. This time I opened my eyes to see myself in a bronze tube, light filtering in from the top and floor of the tube. I stumbled out, legs shaking. The room outside the tube was nearly the same color as the tube, a metallic yellow orange. I supported myself on the thing I realized was a scanner, looking down at myself.

I was wearing black cargo pants (A.N like Ulrich's, just black), black and red tennis shoes, a black halter (that comes together at the back, leaving the shoulders bare and coming together at the top again) with a black lining, and a few silver bangles. I stood strait, looking for an exit. I saw a ladder, and climbed up it to the room above. The room was the computer mainframe of the factory.

I slid into the seat, typing in a few codes. A screen came up, and I saw a forged health record and a forged birth certificate. I smiled. This part would be easy. I changed the health records to match my picture and profile and forged a birth certificate. Suddenly I stopped and put my hands in my lap. _'Now what?'_ I turned sharply, enhanced hearing picking up on a noise. It sounded, like people.

"The computer picked up a-." a male voice seemed to jump out of the other sounds

"We know, Jeremie, something coming out of the scanner." I froze for a millisecond. They found me. Whoever 'they' were.

I ran to a ladder, any ladder, and found that it was going to the top part of the factory. A cable creaked in the elevator next to the shaft I was climbing up. I scrambled. The shaft suddenly ended, and I ran out and into the main part of the factory. Ropes and cables were everywhere. I grabbed one that was hanging off the ceiling a shimmied up. I looked left and right, trying to find a place that I could stay until the people were gone.

I saw a platform about fifty feet off the ground. I did the only thing I could think of doing to get up to it. I took a running leap and pushed off a beam, doing a back flip with the momentum and landing safely. My heart was pounding, blood rushed in my ears, and all I could hear was the creaks and groans of the old factory. It sounded like there was a storm outside. I looked across the platform. It was medium sized, maybe eight feet by twelve feet. On it were assorted gears, parts and objects. I sighed. This would be a long time to wait.

(0) (0)

_**Aelita POV**_

Jeremie pulled us all out of bed at 12 am to see something in the factory; he said something about a scanner. I yawned. It was enough that we had to get up at twelve, right when we were at the edge of a deep sleep, and only worse that it was pouring drops of cold rain. Even though it was only about seven yards to the opening of the factory, all of us got soaked.

Anyway, when we got down to the computer room we found the computer screen was flickering with life, and, as Jeremy checked, a scanner had been activated. We didn't know who came through the scanners, but at the moment Lyoko wasn't in danger, being deleted, or being shut down.

"Sorry for getting you up, guys. I should have just come alone." Jeremie said, sighing and rubbing the lens of his glasses.

"Okay-Okay! You got me up at three a-" Odd yawned halfway through his outburst. "m, just to see a scanner-"

"It's alright Jeremie. It could have been serious." Ulrich elbowed Odd hard in the side.

"Yeah, sure, fine, whatever." Odd mumbled.

I turned to Jeremie. "Let's just go back to the dorms, okay. We just need sleep." He nodded, and we went back to the elevator.

(0) (0)

_**Juno POV**_

They left. Luckily, they didn't find me, or hear me so I was free to jump down from my hiding place and to the floor. Now, what to do, what to do…There's got to be something to help me. I slid my hands into my pockets, trying to see if there was anything I came out of Lyoko with. I found a blue-ish plastic card with a yellow sticky note attached that said 'Hopper account PIN-9151', a folded piece of cream colored paper, and a small black band rind on a silver chain. The second I touched it, the ring flashed with a white light, and then went back to normal.

I turned it over and over with my fingers, trying to find out what the flash was. I found and saw nothing except symbols and an inscription, so I put the chain around my neck, put the blue card back, and unfolded the paper.

_Follow them. Wait one night._

I didn't have any other hint, so I looked outside the factory. I saw the last one, a brown haired boy, climb down a manhole covering and replace the lid. _'Okay, I know where they are going, at least. So wait one night.'_

_**Ulrich POV**_

**Help, I need somebody,  
Help, not just anybody-**

It was my cell phone. I looked at it for about three seconds before answering and hearing-

"ULRICH!"

"What Jeremie?" I asked, knowing he was oblivious to the ring tone I set for his phone. "It's 7:30 in the morning. Can it wait?"

"No. The empty room next to Aelita's dorm is being filled with a new student."

"What does that have to do with me?"

"We have to move all the supercomputer stuff out. Get Odd up, and come now." He hung up, and I threw my phone on my covers before swinging my legs out of bed. I looked at Odd, who was snoring very loudly. I reached my hand out to my nightstand, grabbed an object (hardcover 300 page book for English class) and threw it at him. It hit his head and he mumbled.

"whtmist?"

"7:30." I answered, getting ready.

"wydihvtogtup?"

"Some girl is moving into the spare room next to Aelita. We need to clear it out." I grabbed a water bottle off the cold window sill and then proceeded to pour it on him. He yelped before finally opening his eyes, and getting out of bed.

"Let's go."

(0) (0)

_**Near Noon**_

_**Aelita POV**_

"Oof!" I glanced down, looking at the girl I had run into. She was a little taller than me, maybe Odd's size, had inky black hair and black clothes. Wordlessly she got up and started walking away.

"Wait!" I called, and she turned.

"What?" her voice…It seemed familiar. As if I knew her…

"I'm sorry I ran into you…Are you new?" She looked at me for a few seconds, as if seeing if I was trustworthy. Her stare seemed to see into me, before she nodded.

"What's your name?"

"I'm Juno Lea…no, not after the movie. After the city." So she did know of the American movie. I bet Sissi will just love to have another person to make fun of.

"You must have the room next to me; it's the only one open. Are you room 350?" She nodded again. "I'm Aelita stones." She blinked and then put her fingers to her temple, a look of pain written on her features.

"You okay?"

"Yeah…just a headache…"

(0) (0)

_**Juno POV**_

This girl…Aelita, showed me to my room, and then said goodbye and went to the room on the right. Right as she said her name I had a flash of…memory. I saw her…I saw-

I blocked the image out. I walked in the room, looking at the bland paint and small desk. I looked at an old digital alarm clock that someone left behind, before opening the small dresser. I was about to close it when something caught my attention.

I reached out to it, fingers closing on a small piece of paper-no, picture. It showed a small pink haired girl, that I realized was Aelita.

(0) (0) (0)

_oookay, another short chapter...Sorry OddObsessed! It way be a bit scrambled to...Oh well! Now! On to the same paper i was procrastinating on earlier. Oh, no update next week. I'm sorry. My internet is being worked on._

_Sooo...REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OR FACE THE EVIL WRATH OF CHEAP CHAPTERS THAT ARE ONE SENTANCE LONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! kidding, I could never do that. I love my writing waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much._


	3. One More Day

_mmm 'k, this chapter is dedicated to the three reviewers and another person._

_the reviewers are-** fightingpacifist, MistFairie93, **and** angelicnw2005**_

_The last person is Abz for a good ski trip._

_Disclaimers- I don't own Code:LYOKO or any characters from it. I do own Aisu/Juno though. Yeah, i'm done with this. _

_I'm really sorry for the wait...I was bashing my head against the wall for not being able to update._

_On with the Story!_

_**Juno POV**_

"_You were created…were created…created…"_

"_For different purposes…different purposes…purposes…"_

"_But all…all…all…"_

_It echoed. Flashes of color moved in the haze-silver, auburn, red, violet, pink..._

_Flashing in front of my eyes. It started spinning, dancing away from my consciousness. Sound started to spill in. Sounds like laughter, music, movement, singing, crying, yelling, sobbing…all traveling around my head, my thoughts, my vision. It was painful, it was painless, it was numbing. My body was pulled, prodded, squeezed, released. _

_Stop…_

_Light…_

_Fade…_

_Away…_

_Gone..._

_Forever…_

"_**STOP!**__"_

'_A voice…why a voice…why here…now... Where am I?'_

_I looked around, the colors settling. What was this? I was curled in a ball, looking through my fingers. On a floor._

'_Okay, I'm in a tower. Tower where? What's a tower?' I was confused. I know this is a tower-I know I'm an A.I-I know I'm here-but why-_

_I turned and looked around myself. I saw several other A.I's around me-five-but not clearly. They were in the same position I am. _

'_Who are they? Why were we here?'_

"_Lyoko..." the voice again-again._

"_All of you…" the voice seemed to be distant. Far away. Going farther. The floor started to dissipate-vanish-disappear, and I was falling…forever…_

My eyes flew open as the nightmare faded away. I sat, trying to figure out what I had seen. It seemed like a blur…of people, of sound. It was confusing, and it was close to the same thing I had seen when Aelita said her name.

I blinked, looked at the clock, and then rolled out of bed. Today was Saturday, my second day on earth. Which reminded me. I looked in the on the inside of the dresser's door at the mirror. It showed my reflection of mid back length hair, pale skin, violet shaped eyes, halter and black and black pants. _'I need more clothes.'_

I fished through my pockets again, found the card, and looked at the account number.

9151.

Whose card is this? And why is it in my pocket?

'_Should I-wait, yeah, I'm using it.'_

I opened my door and walked down the small hallway to the stairs. I tramped down them, blinking sleep from my eyes, before coming to a halt after three flights.

According to Aelita's directions, it was a separate building. I walked outside the oak doors. There were a lot of groups hanging around the grounds. Most heading to a small screened in area. Well, it was worth a shot following them. I caught the door as a small red-haired girl was about to slam it.

It turned out, this was the dining hall. I paused for a second and looked for an empty table. There was one with no people in the third row, so after getting my breakfast I sat down. I looked at the tray, trying to figure out what was on it. None of the food I had seen so far had been like the meals on the internet, which had looked pretty good. Which was unlike the food in front of me.

I poked at what looked like a mix between a pancake and French toast and a rubbery thing that could have been eggs trying to decide if I wanted to eat them. I mean, it was edible if they were serving it…right? Finally, I pushed my tray away. It wasn't worth getting sick.

I looked around at the kids and students around me, all laughing or talking to each other. I felt contained…even trapped. It was…weird. Being surrounded by people after being with only myself for so long. I could wish to have friends. But I'm not sure anyone would want to be mine. Maybe I was just afraid, but I looked at the mass of people. They seemed fine with each other, they were friends, and they had known each other for a long time. And I had just gotten here.

And from all those people who had ignored me when I had aimlessly walked the grounds looking for my room, I probably wasn't going to get friends fast.

I stood up, a mere fifteen minutes after entering the dining hall, to put my tray up.

I walked to the door of the dining hall, passing tables of people. Non which paid any attention to the small girl walking outside. _'Well, it's better than being noticed by everyone.'_

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_**Yumi POV**_

"Where are they?" I growled, very frustrated by the fact that the team had agreed to meet at the entrance of the mall at 9:40 a.m. And they weren't here. Maybe they had meant tomorrow, on Sunday…or they were just classically late…again. I looked at my watch. 10:00 and counting.

"Yumi!" I turned.

"Where were you guys, you're twenty minutes late!"

"Sorry," The spiky haired blonde boy said. "You know we're fashionably late every time." I glared at him. He seemed to shrink back.

"Okay, so it was my fault…But the cafeteria just started to serve bacon, and I couldn't resist." Odd saw me roll my eyes. "It was bacon!"

This was not the first time that we had decided to go to the mall, but this time we were going to see the movie, 'Juno' and 'Bourne Ultimatum'. Guess who's seeing which?

Aelita wanted to see 'Juno' because A. There were French subtitles, and B. She said someone reminded her about it. She wouldn't explain further.

The boys, though, point-blank refused to see a chick-flick. I did have to be sympathetic. Usually chick-flicks were dumb, and all had the same plot. Step 1. Girl gets guy. Step 2. Girl and guy in a fight. Step 3. Girl and guy break-up. Step 4. Girl misses guy. And Step 5. Girl and guy get back together. The end. And it is usually stupid. But I had already said yes to see 'Juno' before I knew what it was about.

"Come on Yumi, we need to get tickets before they're sold out!" Aelita's voice pulled me out of my thoughts, and she practically ran towards the small theater.

"See you guys; hope you like the Bourne movie. Meet us at the food court when it's over!" I called, running to the ticket booth.

"We will!" Ulrich shouted back. For a few seconds our eyes locked, and then we looked away blushing.



_**Juno POV (NOT THE MOVIE)**_

Okay, I had been in this mall for three hours. I had gotten clothes, shampoo, conditioner, brushes, shoes, and everything else needed. Now for the fun stuff. What's in here that has to do with what I could like?

I looked at the large string of stores on the floor I was on. _'Clothes, clothes, clothes, make-up, shoes, clothes, shoes, clothes, clothes, music, electronics-wait, electronics.'_ I walked to the store. I read the sign above the store which read 'Radio City' in big red font. I walked in looking through the sections.

I looked at a shelf containing ipods. I had seen these on the internet and actually thought of these to be useful. They held all the music I could ever want-and if anyone knew how much music I listened to during those three weeks, they would know I would need one with a lot of memory. I picked a box up. 2 GB nano, black. I looked at the features, and then at the price. Yep, it was worth it.

I walked to several other sections, picking up other stuff I thought I needed, and something that the school required, a laptop. I looked at a type of computer. It was a small thin black laptop with a HAL label on the top. Under the label it read 'G-700 XY-9'. Apparently, this was 'the most powerful one on the market', or so the salesman told me. It had more features and memory than any other laptop on the market to date, and all laptops scheduled to be released for the next three years. And I knew he wasn't lying. I had seen a lot of advertisement for it, all the votes it had for best laptop, and all the thoughts from newspapers and news guides, and all the blueprints from the HAL manufactures.

Well, needless to say, I walked out of the store with that nano, a cell phone, the G-700 XY-9. I looked at wall clock and saw it was one forty-five.

'_I should go back to Kadic to set all this up.'_



_**Aelita POV**_

The movie had just gotten out, and I must say, it was good. Actually, really good. Yumi even admitted that it was the only chick-flick she could watch. We walked to the food court and waited for the 'Bourne Ultimatum' to get out.

"_When_ does their movie end? I've got to get Hiroki home in-" she looked at her watch. "One hour. Mom wanted me to pick up Hiroki from Johnny's house at three." she groaned.

"What, miss us already?" we turned to see Ulrich walk up to the table, followed by Jeremie and Odd.

"Was it good?" I asked.

"IT WAS AWSOME!!!!!!!!!!!!" Odd exclaimed. Several people looked at us before exchanging glances and turning back to what they were doing.

"Odd liked it, I gather." I asked. Ulrich and Jeremie nodded. We got up and started walking to the exit, skirting groups of people and kiosks.



_Okay, so not much is happening...yet. Trust me, it will come. Bare with me, please, NEW AUTHOR I'M SORRY!!!_

_Yeah, it was short...again._ I'M SORRY! DON'T KILL ME!!!

_And it came up late from another connection probelem. I was all ready to post it and Wham! Internet shuts down._

_Umm...hope you had a good two weeks without me, looked at other fanfics...did...uh...stuff...yeah. but, hope you like this, because i think i need an editor to help me._

_Soo...umm...**REVIEW**! or face the wrath of my...(picks up random object) SCREW DRIVER!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay, maybe not. Just review. _

_With that button on the left. See it? Don't be afraid to press it, leave a name (it doesn't have to be yours, you could put X-tron for all i care) and tell me what's good and what's not...come on, please?_

_**l l** (poor excuses for arrows)_

**_V V_**


	4. Innocent Until Proven Guilty

_Dedicated to __**MistFairie93 **__and __**fightingpacifist**_

_Yeah…really lat chappie_

_DisclaimerI don't own Code Lyoko, or Moonscope, _

_I own Aisu/Juno._

_mmm…yeah. Here's chapter four_

_Innocent Until Proven Guilty_

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_**Aelita POV**_

I woke up to loudly playing rock music from my alarm clock that rang at 6:00 each morning. I yawned, rubbed my eyes, and shut it off. I slowly got up, grabbed my shower stuff and was on my way to the showers.

I arrived at the small room to find a line pretty short. But, even so, Sissi beat me to the showers. And she took thirty minutes to get done. So, by the time I finally got out of the small tile stall it was 6:45. So, with wet hair and tired eyes, I went back to my room.

This isn't the interesting part. Oh, no. Today started with a punch. A really big punch.

I was about to open my door when a creamy piece of paper attached to something fluttered down from the middle of my door from a light breeze in the hallway. I snatched it before it hit the ground and read-

_I found this in my dresser. I'm reasonably sure it's yours._

_Juno Lea_

I looked to what the note was taped to. And couldn't suppress a gasp.

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_**Ulrich POV**_

You'd normally think that at 7:00 Aelita would be down here. _Odd_ was here.

If you knew Odd, that is saying something.

I rubbed sleep from my eyes. Nobody seemed to be awake enough to talk today. I glanced at Odd, who was shoveling food into his mouth, and then Jeremie, who was typing on his laptop with sharp clicks every time he pressed a key.

I poked at what the cook claimed was a blueberry waffle. Odd seemed happy with the food served, but everyone else…well, we're just normal.

I looked up as Aelita nearly ran into the dining hall. She seemed worried, flustered, and above all, scared.

"wshupalita?" Odd asked before he swallowed. "I mean what's up Aelita?"

She didn't answer, instead biting her lip.

"What are you holding?" Jeremie asked, craning his neck in attempt to see it. She held the picture of her father and herself up.

"The girl who took the room next to us gave it to me. She found it in her dresser." She whispered. I looked closer.

"You mean…" I asked.

"Who was supposed to search the dresser?" Jeremie demanded. We all glanced around.

"I had the floor." I said.

"I had the desk." Aelita continued.

"I had bed area." Jeremie raised his eyebrows.

"I had," Odd followed until he realized. "The dresser…"

"Odd, didn't you search the dresser! That was your job, and there wasn't even a lot in it!" Jeremie had turned a hot pink color with the realization that the new girl could've found out about Aelita's father.

"I'm sorr-."

"Odd this isn't just a mistake, this could have been major!"

The dining hall door slammed making me looked up. Jeremie continued his talking, not noticing who came into the dining hall. Yumi had just slammed the door and was heading towards our table.

"What were you thinking?!" Jeremie continued. Yumi's face was hidden by her hair as she sat down.

I sighed. Nothing could stop one of his 'Odd you idiot' rants.

"My grandfather died."

Except that.

All noise at the table stopped, Jeremie's rant cut short.

I turned to Yumi, now realizing that her eyes were red and swollen, hair un-brushed, and shoulders shaking. Believe it or not, Yumi was close to her grandfather. Even though he lived in Japan, he took frequent visits to France to see her and her family.

"Last night." She nearly broke into tears again but I put my arm around her, not knowing the consequences until-

""Ulrich dear!"

Oh no.

"Oh Ulrich, I just wanted to invite you to-hey, what's with Ishiyama?" Slowly, the annoying girl put a false two and two together and came out with-

"Ulrich, you never told me your heart belonged to-that-thing-."

"FYI, Sissi, we are not dating. Yumi is not a thing, if you ask me, you are. And show some heart, her grandfather just died."

"Oh." She waited for a few seconds. "Then would you like to go-." She started.

"No."

"You didn't even hear my offer!"

"Well Sissi," Odd said, a hint of a smile playing at his lips. "When a guy says no every time he sees you, it's time to give up." I don't think Sissi heard it. Then again…

"Well, Odd, when every girl in the school says no that it's time for you to give up too."

"Not everyone." Aelita retorted.

Then who's left? You and me?" Sissi sneered.

"No," Aelita smiled, pointing at a table. "Her."

We all looked to where she was pointing to. We saw a girl in jeans, a black t-shirt, a necklace with a ring on it, and with a long black braid going down her back with a jade ring at the end of it. She had a square-ish face and when she looked up we saw slanted eyebrows and violet almond shaped eyes. Occasionally she would brush bangs that escaped her braid out of her face to continue to type on the black laptop on the table. (A.N-my friend told me I hadn't put enough info on how Juno looked, so here it is-her outlook.)

"So why don't you go talk to her?" Sissi asked in her high pitched voice.

"Why don't you?" I asked.

"Fine! I will. And she'll probably love me after the first few seconds of my graceful presence!" Sissi flipped her hair and walked over.

------------------------------------

_**Juno POV**_

"Excuse me." I looked up to see a girl walking over to me and a table behind her staring at us.

"My name is Sissi, and…" The rest of her speech was lost. I closed my eyes, hoping it would be fast.

"_I know it's hard…"_

"_But this is your sector…"_

"_You created it…"_

"_You're the first one to configure one…"_

_I was on Blazen…again… listening to voice from nowhere._

"_You created Blazen…"_

"Hey, Hey! Are you listening to me?" I blinked the vision out of my mind.

"What's wrong? You look like you just saw a ghost." Sissi narrowed her eyes.

"No," I replied hotly "Only the stupidest person in the world." The table behind her exploded with laughter, most of the laughter from a boy in all purple and…Aelita. The girl in black only managed a faint smile.

"Now that" the boy said in-between gasps of laughter "is good Sissi bashing. I like her already!"

I glanced at the five at the table and the girl fuming in front of me. It was actually pretty funny.

I was silently laughing with them when I felt something turn ice cold on my neck. My hand went up to my necklace, holding the long chain in front of me. Of the seven symbols engraved on the edge, one (that looked like a fire) was pulsing red. I shut my laptop, and snuck out while the other groups were talking. Once at the door I heard a different laptop beep.

------------------------------------

_**Odd POV**_

"I like her already!" I turned to Ulrich who was still comforting Yumi and then at Yumi herself. I was happy to see a small smile playing at her lips.

Then, the laptop beeped.

'_Not now!'_ I thought, seeing the superscan window come up on Jeremie's laptop.

"Wait, this doesn't seem right." Jeremie said, looking at the numbers on the screen. "It's saying that this isn't in a sector. Or at least-never mind. Come on. We got to go." The team stood up and ran to the door.

------------------------------------

"It doesn't make sense!" Jeremie pounded his fists on the computer chairs armrests. We all gazed at the holo-map of Lyoko. Normally, we would have headed down, but something stopped us first.

Sector five is in the center of the Lyoko 'world', you could say, with four other sectors spread around it. But there weren't four others. There were five. This one was black, in contrast to the orange, green, blue, and purple of the other sectors. And the superscan told us that the infected tower was on the new sector.

"I just don't get how a sector could just appear."

"Nobody does, Jeremie, so we might as well go there. The tower is on that sector." Jeremie sighed, knowing Aelita was right.

"Head to the scanner room." We nodded, pressing the elevator's button again.

"Just…be careful. We don't know what's on this one." We nodded as the elevator doors closed. Yumi, Aelita, and I stepped into the scanner as soon as the doors opened again. The scanner door closed, signaling the start of the process.

"Transfer, Yumi. Transfer Odd. Transfer Aelita." Intense light started glowing from the bottom and top of the scanner, forcing me to close my eyes.

"Scanner, Yumi. Scanner Odd. Scanner Aelita." I rose in the air from the intense wind, before-

"Virtualization!"

------------------------------------

I fell to the ground, instantly noticing that this sector was very…

"Detailed." I said out loud, pausing to look more closely at the landscape.

"No time to admire the view, you guys. The tower is just ahead of you. I'm bringing up your vehicles. But Xana-."

"Is sending monsters. We know." I said, jumping onto my newly virtualized overboard. I stopped.

"What?" I asked, looking back at Ulrich, Yumi, and Aelita. They pointed.

There was a thing that looked like a giant red cobra snake, with a Xana symbol on its head. When it was coiled up it was about the size of a tarantula. We stared for a few seconds.

"Eh, Jeremie, is this showing on your screen?" Aelita asked, having Yumi steer the overwing a little closer.

"Yeah. It's there. Xana's monster." We all watched the snake sway.

"Does this seem like a cobra to you, because I really like the name cobra-." I said, looking at the team.

"Odd!" Yumi shouted, and I turned to Cobra too late. A beam from its mouth hit my arm and I was nearly pitched off the overboard.

"Odd, 60 life points left." I heard from Jeremie. I fired some arrows at the cobra, but with surprising agility it dodged.

"Aelita, Yumi! Watch out!" The cobra's next beam of red energy hit the flat overboard's bottom, and it de-virtualized instantly. Both girls landed alright, but only if you call 'alright' next to the monster itself.

It hissed-actually hissed-and charged another beam, aiming at Aelita. I was about to jump in front of her when someone beat me to it.

------------------------------------

_**Aisu POV**_

I heard some noise behind me. Which was weird-I hadn't heard noise on Blazen except when I fought those bloks. But this was yelling. I turned to look back from my way to the tower and froze. I tried to comprehend what I was seeing, but couldn't.

There were four people about fifty feet behind me, surrounding a snake monster on three vehicles. At first glance, I didn't think I knew anyone, but something caught my eye-pink.

It was Aelita and her group of friends. Here. Who woulda thought?

I turned back in time to see one of their vehicles being destroyed, the overwing. I first thought that I should help them. Show myself to them; tell them I was Juno, when another thought crossed my mind, faster than the first.

'_They might not let me stay on Earth'_

That thought made me freeze. And stop all forward motion to help them.

'_They might not let me stay'_

That thought was convincing me to keep going. And let them be. Until the cobra aimed at Aelita. Then, I jumped.

You know, most people can jump a couple feet off the ground. Maximum. Me? I jumped much, _much_ farther than that. Maybe forty feet in the air.

I grabbed my sword off my back. The cloth on the hilt streamed behind me as I brought the sword up despite all the g-force pushing my limbs back.

I didn't land first-I dove out from the sky like a needle from a dart gun, flying down and striking the cobra on its eye of Xana.

"You know-." I said, as the cobra disintegrated before me. "I find fighting before gawking a better way to survive."

I looked at there shocked faces.

"What?"

""Uh…" the brown haired boy said. He held two Katanas, had a yellow and brown body suit and his vehicle had one wheel. I recognized it as the Overbike.

"Who are you?" The purple cat boy blurted out, swinging his tail. I looked closer at him. He was the same kid at the breakfast table laughing at my insult on Sissi!

"Do you mean my name, what I'm here for, or both?" I asked.

"Uh…Both." Aelita answered, the earring on her elf-ear swinging gently.

"I'm Aisu, or Application Interpreter Software User. And I have no idea why I'm here. Do you?" it was worth a shot. Maybe they created me…foolish hope.

"No." I heard a voice say from nowhere. I jumped, fingers tightening around my sword.

"Relax…Aisu. That's just Jeremie." The geisha said. It was the first words I had heard out of her.

"Okay. So there's one name. Anyone else have one?"

"Ulrich."

"Yumi."

"Aelita."

"Odd." They all said their names at the same time.

"Odd?" I asked, and his face twisted into a broad grin.

"That's me, Odd Della-Robia!" I shook my head. O-okaaay…"

"Did you create this?" Jeremie asked, and I could tell the other members of the team wanted to know the answer.

"Yes. I did." I answered, looking out at the sector, amazed with the new memory of accomplishment.

"Who created you?" Ulrich asked. Now this was just getting annoying.

"Cut it with the questions! I don't know, I don't care! All I know is that people are in danger from idle chatter." They looked taken aback.

"Want to de-activate the tower, please?" I asked, putting my sword behind my shoulder, cloth wrapping around it. I turned and starting to sprint away. I saw Aelita get on Odd's Overboard thing and Yumi get on Ulrich's Overbike. They caught up with me rather quickly, but I managed to stay with them throughout the journey. Nobody said anything, but all seemed to be looking around the landscape with awe and amazement.

We jumped over several platforms until we got so five pointed spires.

"Need a ride?" Odd asked, pulling over with Aelita.

"No. You can't hold three people." He was about to retort but I did another jump, flipping and landing on the point of the spire on the ball of my foot. I looked below me, not feeling vertigo, but feeling amazing. Like I could do anything. I jumped again and again, with the same results of balance and emotion.

The feeling died as soon as I got off the misty points. We rushed farther seeing the tower against the side of a cliff.

Suddenly Ulrich stopped.

"More monsters." He said. He grabbed his katonas.

I also stopped running, hand going to my shoulder. There were four tarantulas around the tower, positioned in a semi-circle to prevent anyone from getting in. I leapt into the air, taking my sword out and on impact, jammed it into the ground. A wide crack spread from there, and slowly spilt into four branches.

The tarantulas looked down and under their 'feet' at the spider web crevasses before looking for the source of the fissures.

I didn't let them. I allowed red energy to come forth from my hands, down my swords, and into the crack. I controlled it until it got the cracks under the tarantulas. Then I released it. The energy acted like fire, crackling and escaping. Let's just say the tarantulas weren't happy.

"You gonna wake up?" I turned to the Lyoko 'Warriors' who were looking at me with a strange look on their face. They exchanged looks, and Aelita nodded, running to the tower. She slid through the surface, and before long I heard

'Tower Deactivated.'

------------------------------------

_**Odd POV**_

"look Einstein, as much as we'd like to know what's going on in Aisu's head, we can't. And from what I could tell she's on our side."

"I know Odd, the problem is that because she's an A.I she could be on anyone's side-Xana's, ours…nobody's…" He trailed off, he sighed looking at the screen. He had taken the headset off, and was looking closer at the screen, as if he could find all the secrets.

"You're right." Yumi said, instantly agreeing. The computer room started getting darker as Ulrich turned the lights down.

"Or, she could want to get rid of Xana." Ulrich countered, walking over and gazing at the holo-map. The bright blue light it glowed was reflected on his face, making shadows appear on his eyes and forehead.

"Jeremie, she seemed innocent." Aelita pushed past me to get to Jeremie. "And in my eyes, she's innocent until proven guilty."

"Maybe…" he said. "Maybe."

------------------------------------

_Okay, finally got this one done. Sorry it took so long, but now I'm going to update on Mondays…yeah._

_This one is more than twice as long…hope you liked it. It wasn't spectacular…or amazing…or any good adjective you want to insert. Yeah…_

_It was late for its length._

_So…umm __**REVIEW IF YOU WANT TO LIVEOr face the wrath of more 4 page long chapters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**_

_**OH AND I HAVE A POLL, SO LOOK**_

**_Click Button Below if you want to live...(jk)_**


	5. Nicholas in Fury

_Disclaimer-I don't own Code Lyoko, Only Aisu and the plot._

_Dedicated to __MistFairie93 - Writer girl3 - fightingpacifist – burgessa_

_Explanation at the bottom_

_Oh, and Lea is pronounced LEE_

_**Aisu POV**_

I watched the Lyoko team go, unsure if I was welcome to the group, or just an inconvenient mishap. Maybe I was both-an inconvenient mishap that was welcome.

I sighed, not knowing which I was. I looked at the ground (Which had already started repairing itself) and the small blades of black grass that sprouted out of it. I'd just have to see.

I turned to the now blue glowing tower, and heavy with thoughts, slipped inside of it. I rose to the next platform, wandering whether they had left the factory.

'_Or, I could hack the cameras.'_ I smiled at that thought. I turned to the translucent blue screen that had once again appeared. _'This'_ I thought_' would be easy.'_

_**Jeremie POV**_

We were almost to class. And, we were early. Early being about a minute.

Ulrich, Odd and I grabbed out books from upstairs and raced toward Mr. Fumet's history class (_A.N this is one of the teachers_). We slid as we entered the class, looking at the clock hopefully.

"Thank you for joining us, now please sit down!" Oops, I think he started his lesson a little early.

We sat in one of the new three person desks in the middle center, pulling out our books and my laptop. I flipped it open in case of an alert. Not that I was expecting any. Odd stared at the screen for a while. After what seemed like hard concentration he poked me. I glared at him and ignored him.

"Now," Mr. Fumet continued, "Who can tell me why Henry the eight of England divorced Catherine of Aragon?" 

Herve raised his hand and Mr. Fumet called on him. 

"Jeremie…" Odd whispered. I glared at him. Too many times had I gotten in trouble from Odd's jokes.

I was half-way listening to his speech on the old English Monarch when Odd bumped my shoulder more forcefully.

"Jeremie!" he whispered loudly. He pointed at the screen. 

"Look." I did so.

I sighed through my nose. "So, she's out."

"Who?" Ulrich questioned, eyes on the teacher pretending to look interested.

"Aisu."

"Boys, what is so interesting that it is capturing your attention away from King Henry the eighth's plots and wives?" I started.

"N-nothing sir." I stuttered out. To my right Odd shook with contained laughter, still stuck on the 'plot and wives' part of this conversation. Weird.

"And what is this laptop doing in my class?" Mr. Fumet turned it around. He studied the graphics and codes for a few seconds before proclaiming- 

"A video game? In MY classroom? Jeremie Belpois, I expected better from you." The entire class was staring at our table. And laughing, Sissi being the main source of noise.

"I will take this, and I will see you after class for a while. Now back to King Henry and Catharine of Aragon…" I turned to Odd.

"Thanks…" I mumbled, glaring at him.

_**Yumi POV**_

"Sorry I'm late, I got lost." I (along with the rest of the class) looked up to see Juno sliding to a halt after running in. 

"That is okay." Mrs. Mayer said. She put down the chalk she was writing with, the unfinished math equation left behind. 

"Class, this is our new student. Juno Lea" she pronounced Lea as Leya. The class giggled at her name.

"That's not how you say it." Juno commented. She smiled nervously.

"Juno Le-ay?" Mrs. Mayer tried again. Juno shook her head,

"Juno." Mrs. Mayer left it at that. "Go sit in between William Dunbar and Yumi . I watched her come over and slide in between me and the William clone. 

"Hi." She said. "What's up?"

"Isn't the ceiling up? Is there anything else?" I turned my head as if my look could silence the William clone. Juno looked at him weirdly before turning to me.

"What's up with you?" I let out a breath, happy that she had let the clones literal attitude go.

"My grandfather just died." I whispered. A pang of loss stabbed at my heart but I pretended to pay attention to Mrs. Mayer's lesson on variables and mess of equations. Juno tapped her fingers on the desk. I could tell that she was trying to find something to say. Eventually she shrugged.

"I got nothin'." It was a blunt response. Maybe the only thing anyone could have come up with.

"But you have your books and binders right here at your desk." I gave an exasperated sigh at William's thought on that. Juno's violet eyes flashed a look at him, before looking down at a sheet of notebook paper. She started writing on it-scratching things out, rewriting, counting something on her fingers. I looked at her through the corner of my eye. She seemed so familiar. Maybe it was just me.

"Juno, please answer this question." She looked startled, obviously not having paid any attention to the lesson. I winced, feeling bad for her. The board up front had a long and hard question that nobody in the class had figured out how to work out. Mrs. Mayer used it as a way to say that the students were getting unruly, and failure to solve the problem meant a lecture after class. So Mrs. Mayer would pick the loudest talking or the person looking like he/she wasn't paying attention to solve the problem. Everyone who had tried it had failed. 

Juno stared at the board for a grand total of five seconds before she said-

"Seven."

"Juno I know that you are new to the class but I will no tolerate talki-." she stopped, thinking over what Juno had replied. 

"Seven?" Mrs. Mayer looked at Juno oddly. I couldn't tell what she was thinking until-

"How did you get the right answer?" The class turned to face our desk. Juno seemed to shrink down, as if she wasn't used to a lot of people looking at her at once.

"Lucky guess?"

I didn't think so.

Two periods after that math class I was free and walking to lunch. Finally. Morning periods always seemed longest. Maybe it was the fact that I was still asleep, or maybe it was that the classes were the hardest ones for me, but no matter how long I looked at the clock, the small hands refused to move.

That's when I bumped into a wall of people. I peered around Milly, and find more people. I slowly made my way to the middle with 'excuse me', 'sorry', 'one minute'.

"But why don't you want to-." I made it to the center. The wall of people was around Nicholas and Sissi, Nicholas obviously pleading for something.

"My," Sissi said, flipping her hair over her shoulder, "heart does not belong to you. I don't want to be your girlfriend." I paused. That could only mean one thing-Nicholas had finally gotten the courage to ask Sissi out and was being punished for it.

"But Ulrich hates you. And he insults you everyday, and he doesn't care for you, I do-." Nicholas, stop talking stop talking!

"No!" Was Sissi's exasperated reply. I could tell she wasn't upset, only miffed about the event that she had caused. She stalked to the edge of the group. She 'hmphed' and slipped past several people before I lost sight of her. My attention went back to Nicholas, who was staring after Sissi with a hard expression. Finally he turned.

"What are you looking at!" he shouted. He shoved an eighth grader in the hallway. He _shoved_ someone.

And that was really unlike him. 

_First…_

_Are there any beta readers out there who will are willing to edit for this story?_

_And I have a link to a poetry and song blog that is my work…on my profile…yeah. The only song up as of now is kind of drabble that was in my mind…_

_I'm really sorry for the long wait. Really, really sorry. As a book I once read quoted '__'it was a family tragedy that ended in death'. For this occasion it's actually was true. So I haven't been allowed on the computer for three weeks because my mom has been e-mailing, checking funeral homes and other stuff…so yes it's short. _

_But hey, I updated…right? That counts for something…_

_Right?_

_I'm really sorry!_

_But unfortunately for my three reviewers and the 244 hit's or so, Family comes first…And I will try to update with longer chapters after this blows over and life gets back to normal._

_Thank you if you understand._


	6. How to Live and Love Part 1

Ulrich POV

_Disclaimer-I don't own Code Lyoko. It would have more than four seasons if I owned it Trust me._

_Nothing to say!_

-O-

_**Ulrich POV**_

I don't usually get myself into emotional turmoil, especially someone else's. But this was different. This was _Yumi_.

I saw her three days after the Nicholas and Sissi incident, excusing herself from her classroom just to compose herself. All I could do was stare out the small window in the door of my classroom opposite hers. Jeremie and Odd didn't notice her, nor anyone else in the class. But I did.

I watched her for a full five minutes as she leaned against the tan walls, wiping her eyes suppressing sobs that were shaking her shoulders. I could feel myself shrink with sadness as she took a deep breath and opened the oak door to her class once again. Her eyes were still red and cheeks tearstained as she disappeared through the door and into the English class.

**Snap, Snap!**

I blinked and shook my head as Aelita removed her hand from in front of my face and back to her tray.

"Ulrich, you've been staring at your pudding cup for the past twenty minutes. Which I suggest you eat, and fast, because Odd is coming back." I straightened up from the position of leaning on my elbows, hands cupped under my chin to see Odd coming to the table. I opened the cup of chocolate pudding, adding my spoon to its contents.

"Guess what?" He didn't wait for us to answer. "We can sign up for after school activities!" He looked at us expectantly.

"So?" Yumi asked.

"Soo, we can get the band back together!" he exclaimed. My spoon dropped back into my cup after one bite. I glanced around the table, uncomfterable silence slightly, no, _really_ unnerving.

"Odd…" I turned to my right, Yumi looking anywhere but to us. "I can't do the band. It's just I'm going to Japan for two weeks tomorr-."

"Wait. What?" I was shocked. She hadn't told us any of that!

"Think about it you guys, my grandfather lived in Japan, not France!" she looked at our still shocked faces. "It's just two weeks. You can live without me."

"But-." Odd started, looking somewhat alarmed.

"You can find a new singer. I'll go sign up for the time slot, but I can't be in the band." Yumi said firmly.

"Then I guess I have to say it too." The table all looked at Odd. "Over the summer I started playing rhythm guitar, and in all seriousness, am better then regular guitar." That was a surprise. Odd and Yumi both need replacements.

"Don't worry guys; we can hold auditions-it's not the end of the world."

"Yeah, but then again we still have to have Nicholas in the band." I reminded them. They looked at me.

"So, he was there last year too." Jeremie said, perplexed.

"Yes, but he's the equivalent of a bully this year."

"Yeah, well, we'll just have to work with that. Maybe have drum auditions too. If not, we'll deal with him. Sound okay?" I couldn't find anything to complain about, so I nodded, as did everyone else.

"So, Yumi will go get a slot, and we'll hold auditions. What's wrong with that?" Aelita asked. I shrugged, Odd shrugged, and the matter was settled there. I sighed, my now empty pudding cup clattered sideways before spinning in a slow circle. Maybe we could find someone, or maybe the time to stop was here. I glanced at the small glimmer of excitement in Odd's eyes.

'_What, have I gone insane? Odd's never going to give this up!'_

-O-

_**Juno POV**_

My ipod sang in my ear as my eyes slid over to the Lyoko team. They seemed preoccupied, distracted, sad…okay, _one_ was happy. Odd. As normal. I gathered up my laptop and binders. I didn't eat lunch. My body didn't _need_ lunch. I passed the tables of light mooded people, all laughing and talking like normal. The feeling of separation had dimmed some, but not so much to keep the sadness at bay.

I left the building, heading across to my next period. I hummed along to the song playing, tapping my fingers against the black casing to the beat of the drums. I decided I had enough time to spare, and went to the covered overhang that the students called the commons. The brick wall felt cool as I leaned back and closed my eyes, letting the soft, yet metal hard song roll over me.

"Good song?" I opened one eye to see Yumi running her fingers through her hair and letting out a slow breath next to me.

"Rough lunch?" I asked. She nodded, I nodded, and we both sighed.

"Class." Yumi said, looking at her watch. I bundled up my ipod's cable and slipped it into my pocket before I left the commons and left to the locker rooms. Yumi didn't leave yet, but watched the road construction across the grounds slowly progress.

-O-

"Today, in gym class," Jim started. I heard several people yawn, boredom already setting in. "Physical fitness tests!" yawns turned to groans and Jim turned and started scolding people who had groaned.

"Ms. Le-ya,"

"Ms. Lea!" I returned to Jim. Why can't they get it right? LEA is pronounced LEE

"Ms. Lea, take off your necklace. No jewelry in gym class." Oh. Right. I lifted the chain off my neck and over my head. Jim nodded with approval. I wrapped the long chain around my wrist until it hung as a loose bracelet, which I shoved up my arm and was hidden by the sleeve of my gym uniform. That way I could tell if there was an attack by Xana. And Jim wouldn't see it.

"First we will do one hundred meter sprints! Any volunteers?" What was that earth saying? You could hear a pin drop?

"Okay…uh… Ishiyama, Lea, get to the starting line." The teenagers started talking to one another.

"Juno against the fasted kid in the grade!" Anaïs Fiquet whispered to her friend. I ignored their gossip and stood at the starting line. Jim ran down to the other side (taking a minute) and raised his hand.

"At my signal!" he yelled "Run!" I relaxed my muscles and I could tell Yumi tensed next me. Jim Dropped his arm, and we left the bullpen and the class behind.

Yumi was fast. Her record I could tell was about thirteen seconds. But I was…created by a computer. Which gave me an unfair advantage. I pulled ahead of her, arms swinging, legs striding forward. Jim watched both of us come toward him, ready to stop both of the timers in his hands. I left Yumi behind fully as I accelerated to about half of the speed I was required to go. I breezed past Jim as I hit the finish line.

"Lea…uh…you got…um…11.29 seconds…um…" my breathing slowed down to normal again and I turned.

"That's good, right?" I asked.

"Yes. Very good!" he tried to shake off his shock. "Yumi, you have 12.57." 12.57, that's pretty good. Actually, that's better than an average runner; then again, I was about a second above the record…

My ring went cold, freezing against the skin on my upper arm.

"Jim, can I go to the bathroom?" I had no idea where the activated tower was, what Xana was doing, or where any of the warriors were besides Yumi was in the school.

"Yes you may, Lea." I left, grabbing my pulling the necklace down from my arm and off my wrist. A symbol of a the triangles, two smaller ones in front of a larger taller one glowing violet.. I was hoping to escape through the hallway when I got there.

But I didn't get there.

I didn't get anywhere.

"Run!" I screamed, doing as said. Splinters flew everywhere as the wall next to me folded over and collapsed with a groan. Several people screamed and actually did as I had ordered. They ran because after all the plaster dust had cleared the rather clearly visible attack was behind it. The driverless bulldozer rumbled and it advanced from the huge hole.

"Everyone, get out of the gym!" Jim yelled, as if people weren't doing so already. I waited and ran out last.

-O-

_**Jeremie POV**_

"Hello?" I asked into the mouthpiece of the cell phone. I glanced over to make sure the study hall teacher (who had left to see what all the noise was) still surveyed the hallway.

"You might want to leave right about now."

"Who is this?" I asked. A sigh rattled over the speakers.

"Just-check you laptop or look outside. Either one will work. And bring Odd or Ulrich."

"What are you talki-Aisu!" but she had hung up. I turned to Ulrich who had seen everything and looked concerned.

"Now?" He asked, nudging Aelita who glanced at us.

"I would say-." A hideous groaning noise came from the back wall of the classroom. "Yeah, now sounds good." I said. The teacher came back in the room-but only to be forced out as Ulrich rushed her. We ran out the hall, hearing the soft pounding of the teacher's footfalls. I didn't have my laptop-I didn't know where Yumi or Odd were-I didn't know what the attack was. Until I hit the center of the campus. I looked around only to find six bulldozers from the construction ripping buildings to shreds.

"Boys-Aelita! You better come ba…" her voice faded as we split up and I ran around the buildings.

'_Ow, cramp'_ I thought, hitting the trees. _'I need to work out more'_ No time to regret that-I could hear trees crash behind me. I held my side and burst into the clearing which held the storm drain.

-O-

"Aisu, are you there?"

"What do you think? I called you from the super computer."

"Ulrich, and Aelita are on their way."

"Obviously." I clenched my hands into a fist at her response. So _head_strong. I turned to my friends.

"Go. The activated tower is in the mountain sector. I'll get a virtualization up." They nodded, and left accordingly.

"Aisu, the attack is bad. The structure of the school is being torn away. We don't have a lot of time. Some people still don't know they're in danger."

"Then are they coming yet? I'm getting board, and those bulldozers won't stop for waiting." I sighed at Aisu's blunt remarks.

"They are, and I-I…never said…anything about bulldozers."

-O-

_**Narrator POV**_

"**Kala!**" Aisu shouted, creating a wave of red energy. It raced across the amethyst colored land surrounded the mega-tank. Above her two wire frames were forming. The two warriors landed and surveyed the damage to the mega-tank. Which wasn't much.

"Why don't you just do that attack from last time?" Ulrich asked amazed at how little damage had occurred.

"Do you know how much energy that took up? Do you? Let me tell you, nearly all of it."

"So, why did you do it the first time?" Aelita asked

"I don't know, maybe because I wasn't going to attack any anymore that day?" Ulrich tried his best to tempt the mega-tank to open.

"Stop arguing. We need to hurry-the factory's been attacked." Jeremie exclaimed. They all immediately shut their mouths, the scare shaking them all out of the tension.

Aelita activated her transparent pink wings and flew the long distance and over the mega-tank. It rolled accordingly until it opened, eye facing her. Her expression went from determined to fright as she realized that she was practically cornered. It started to charge. Aisu kneeled on one knee and then cupped her hands. She motioned for Ulrich to step on them. He did so…somewhat confused. But, he didn't have much time to figure out what she was going to do-because Aisu had started the action. She pulled back, and then lifted up and forward. With Ulrich in (or was in) her hands. Ulrich flew for the few moments before in mid air, pulling his katonas out, stabbed the mega-tank.

"See? More like it."

"Yeah, yeah, Jeremie." Aisu scowled and started running towards the wide open field. The tower was on the other side, but everyone knew that wide spaces seemed longer than hidden ones.

"Hurry!" There was a grinding screech in the background, like a fallen beam being ground and twisted.

"We know, Jeremie, bulldozers everywhere." Green eyes glinted with annoyance as Aisu looked foreword at the unforgiving length of the landscape. How could she have made such a stupid open space? It made no sence! She took her sword off her back. The wrapping unraveled in a spiraling fury and she heaved it onto her shoulder. She was ready to attack or defend.

"What's wrong with you guys? Jeremie, are any monsters on the scope? Jeremie?" Aisu had no response. She looked back at Aelita and Ulrich to see why in the world they weren't running for the tower.

She found out before turning around.

"Uh!" a red beam caught her arm. She actually did turn around the next time. "Xana!" She hissed, irritated by the sight of a cobra. Aisu did a quick leap into the air, the extended power pushing her foreword. She pulled her sword back, over her left shoulder, and concentrated.

"**Kala!**" In a swift movement she swung the blade, a crescent of scarlet energy flying fast, furious, and dangerous. The cobra disintegrated, along with a twelve foot long, three foot deep curve of the mountain sector. Aelita and Ulrich glanced carefully at the inch long narrow ends of the crater and the thick six foot long middle.

"What happened to not using too much energy?" Ulrich smirked, sheathing the katona he had been deflecting shots with.

"I decided that Aelita being protected by someone who _can_ do it more important." Ulrich narrowed his eyes; the insult wasn't lost to him.

"And what do you mean by that?" He straitened and looked directly into Aisu's eyes. Her gaze didn't waver, and neither did his.

"Relax, Ulrich. I was saying you weren't in the position to attack and get rid of the threat." They still glared at each other, emerald oriental shaped meeting hazel prominent shaped. The tension was clear. Aelita glanced back and forth between the black clothed A.I and the yellow garbed samurai. Her frightened eyes reflected nothing of the personal confrontation-but were pleading for the two warriors to snap out of it and realize the danger.

"Ulrich…Aisu-." She whispered. They glanced at her. "William."

"Who?" Aisu's eyes flashed with confusion before a harder glance set in. The trio turned to the land to the tower. The black clad figure stood, a broad sword was in his hand, at the middle land area between where they were, and where the tower stood.

"Why didn't anyone tell me there was another raving lunatic in this place? There was Xana already and now some other crazy person?"

"He isn't crazy-he's controlled." Aelita looked sadly into the distance, regarding the silhouette carefully. Aisu regaurded the figure-before realizing it was the boy from all of her classes-or, she realized the real person.

'_Clone!'_ Aisu remembered all the dimwitted responses the clone had given. The clone wasn't perfect, meaning it would have flaws…and it was there to cover up the fact the boy in front of her was to remain on Lyoko.

"Crazy lady says what?" Aisu asked, slightly disturbed

"What?"

"Atta girl." Aisu stared off into the distance. Ulrich twirled his katona, board with the inaction. "But in the case of emergency because Jeremie won't pick up and communicate with us-." Aisu leapt forward and out into the air, practically disappearing into the virtual sky…

"Aisu!" Aelita shouted but it was too late. Aisu was at the peak of her arc and coming down with the tip of her sword pulsing with energy. "We should come up with a plan." Aelita finished uselessly.

"Come on! We need to use this distraction to go!" So we started running…across the endless plain.

-O-

_**Following Aisu and William in Battle**_

**Clisch!**

Aisu flipped after the two swords met in mid-air, landing behind William. She turned, eyes lighted with energy. She swung her arm and sword across her body. William jumped at the last second to avoid the spike-but was it William?

"_Fight her!" _Xana growled. Outside of William's mind he did growl-something low, and foreboding.

"_No!"_ William fought Xana's control again-it seemed like the millionth time that day-that minute-that second-but he fought. The outside William froze-giving Aisu a split second to attack. She punched him with her unoccupied hand, red energy masking it.

"_Quiet!"_ Xana ordered. William cried out in pain, conscience weakening from the mind crush Xana had thrust upon him. Pain unimaginable overrode his senses, but he was used to it-and shoved it away. He rose again to retort.

"_Quiet! In the peanut gallery!"_ he mimicked. Xana pushed the annoying conscious away. William had to stop and hold his thoughts together to stay aware of the battle outside.

"_That should teach you"_

"_Teach me what? Math?_" Xana roared in hatred. Aisu swung her sword and landed a strong hit-sending William to the near edge of the platform.

"You can't hit me. You can't win Xana." Aisu swung again, but Xana raised William's arm to block the shot. Aisu couldn't recover in time to move. He raised William's own sword, going down into a down strike sure to kill her.

She held up her hand…

The sword met…

And stopped.

"I told you, Xana…" The sword was stopped by a single hand. Aisu's palm was alight with the red kala energy-and stopping the sword before it hit her. The entire maneuver was sapping a lot of energy from Aisu, but she continued to fight the boy. "You can't win."

"_Don't hurt her!"_ William screamed. Xana stopped pressuring his conscience for a split second. William used the distraction to freeze his body, allowing Aisu back handspring out of the way. Xana and William grappled for control over each other, causing Aisu to have optimum leeway to attack. It wasn't until Xana finally shoved the joint conscience away that he realized why William was fighting harder.

"_Who loves?"_ it was only a whisper of a thought-but it was giving Xana enough power to gain control again.

"_I love…"_ William answered. He couldn't shield his thoughts from the demonic program-he was too weak-too subdued.

"_Love who?"_

"_I love her…"_

Aisu was confused about why William continued to pause in the middle of the fight, giving her precious opportunities to give shots and blasts to the controlled teenager. The Xana controlled body stumbled back as the hits and attacks persisted to hit-and hit-and finally-

Aisu drove the tip of the sword through the puppet's stomach. He moaned as he devirtualized into smoke-and disappeared.

-O-

_**Juno POV**_

"Ms. Lea, take off your necklace. No jewelry in gym class." I blinked; fully prepared to match the time I originally had before the Xana attack. I did the same thing as before, shoving the bracelet up my arm.

"First we will do one hundred meter sprints! Any volunteers?" Yumi raised her hand, and I raised my eyebrows. This was a turn of events. Maybe she didn't want to lose to me again.

"Very good, Ishiyama. Anyone else?" no raised hands. So Yumi wanted to tweak the events. It could work, and she would go with someone else. In truth, that was favorable. It would be better than the outcome before.

"Lea, go with her." Or maybe we could do it again.

-O-

_Okay, in the middle of this chapter it was eyes, eyes, eyes, eyes, then it was William, puppet, Xana, conscience (which I had trouble figuring out how to spell), and NO DON'T" HURT HER!!_

_Yeah. I know its two weeks late. I know that it's bad. I know that you're gonna complain! All three of you! But it is over nine pages, don't criticize!_

_Okay, rant over._

_BETA READER NEEDED!! WHY DON'T ANY OF YOU KNOW ANY!!_

_Umm sorry._

_Review!! Please?_


	7. How to Live and Love Part 2 Pressure

_Hey! Three weeks again! Wow, weeks fly fast during exam week...umm..._

_Disclaimer-I don't own Code Lyoko, Or Evanescence's song Call Me When You're Sober_

_**How to Live and Love Part 2-Pressure**_

_**Juno POV**_

I peaked around the corner. Of course the music room was empty. The small white room was filled with drums, broken reeds, chairs, stands, and a large variety of brass and woodwind instruments students had forgotten or left for hatred of band music. I picked my way across the piles of sheet music to 'Pirates of the Caribbean' and the imperial march. I picked up fluttering white sheet of paper with a jumbled array of bar lines and sharp signs off the stand. It read 'First clarinet- Title: Crescendo'. I placed it back on the stand without any noise and continued forward. I picked up a forgotten trombone with a dinged bell and placed it gently on the chair it was next to. It was sad that all these people hated music this much to destroy the band room. This place was a mess-a big mess.

"_You know, you could just play music."_

"_I know, but that is not my purpose."_

I grabbed hold of the blue plastic back of the chair next to me. A wave of dizziness washed over me from the sightless flash of…memory? Imagination? But his one had my voice in it…_"I know, but that is not my purpose"_ I shivered, suddenly chilled. Whatever these were, I was having for of them. They overrode my senses, blocking everything from the outside world out. I blinked furiously, trying to get my vision back from the black sightless flash. It was hard for me to stay upright-it was similar to standing up and walking fast after being either sitting or laying down for a long period of time. A…head rush. This was getting hard for me to cut it off. I managed to this time...

"_So…If it's what you want to do…"_

See? Another one. Or maybe it was the same vision as before, but cut in half. Maybe I was just not used to seeing flashes of remembrance. But then I saw what I was really in here for.

There was a guitar on a stand a few feet away. It was painted in a purple tiger striped pattern all the way up to the neck of the guitar. It was by far the most taken care of instrument in this room. No dings, no scratches, all strings attached. I walked the rest of the way to the string instrument and picked it up. I had a momentary flash of guilt, but I waved it off. I had been practicing with this guitar and learning with this guitar since Yumi left for…somewhere a week ago. Only Odd seemed happy, even though his companion has left.

So what about Odd? The only reason I have to give anything about them is when Xana attacks.

I opened the music book I had been learning with. The first day I memorized fingerings, the second played easy music, the third messed around with cords and an amplifier and the rest of the week I was busy with Xana. Until today.

I picked up the shocking purple guitar, flipped the music book to a song I liked and started the fingering off. The book translated all the other instruments into this one instrument-meaning the piano in the beginning was simply put to guitar.

**Don't cry to me.  
If you loved me,  
You would be here with me.  
You want me,  
Come find me.  
Make up your mind.**

-O-O-

_**Four Hours Earlier-10:00 am**_

_**Odd POV**_

"See you guys? I've got four hundred flyers for new guitar, vocal, possibly drum part." I said, the green sheets of paper stack up fluttered loosely in the wind that emitted from walking over to Ulrich and Jeremie.

"Who will do this Odd? I mean, last year we had a hard enough time finding a drummer. But now three parts?" Jeremie asked. His face told me that I was being my normal, non-thinking self.

"Maybe we'll get lucky. We'll find a guitarist that sings and plays drums." I looked the doubt on his face. "Okay, a little too much."

"Yeah…a little." Ulrich was silent the entire time. He had been mostly silent since Yumi left a week ago. I looked at my best friend as he stared out the window of our second floor dorm room. Poor guy was still in denial. His hair was messier than normal and his grades in science (his best subject with a 90) had been…less than normal. In truth he wasn't doing that well on Lyoko either. All his attacks were weak and held no resistance to Xana's monsters. It finally came to the point that even Aisu, _Aisu_, the girl who didn't care for anyone on the team, asked what was wrong and if there was anything she could help with. Of course, that was followed by another twelve-foot crater from her whatchamocallit red energy stuff, but she asked, didn't she?

"Lets go." Ulrich nodded, getting up from the foot of his bed where he was been sitting and went to the door, Jeremie followed. Jeremie unlocked it and he paused, wondering why I wasn't heading out too. I shrugged and stood, grabbing the masking tape first. With the flyers in my hands and the ring of tape on my wrist, we set out.

We put flyers _everywhere_. Over water fountains, on doors, on bulletin boards. We shoved the green sheets of paper in the cracks of lockers and dorm room doors too. We even took handfuls and just threw them in the hall and watched them flutter down like leaves in a whirlwind. Entire hallways were coated with green sheets of flyers. People everywhere would pick up the flyers and would read 'Band notice-Drummer, Guitarist and Vocals needed! Band members already joined: Odd Della-Robia, Ulrich Stern, and Aelita Stones. Electronics manager: Jeremie Bellpois.' Not that it was Jeremie's choice; I kinda made him do it. Ah, whatever. He'll get over it. He never has any fun anyway.

I checked my watch and then glanced at Ulrich. He was in the process of taping a sheet of paper to a bulletin board. I motioned to him and he checked his own watch.

"Here Jeremie!" Ulrich and I dumped our posters in his arms. He looked confused, and with his glasses no askew thanks to my arm bumping his head, he looked slightly crazy. "Thanks! Soccer practice! Bye!"

-O-O-

_**One hour later-11:00 am **_

_**Aelita POV**_

Odd and Ulrich really have outdone their selves. I walked through the formally tan painted hallway and looked at their work. Students everywhere were picking up the sheets. Some tossed them out, some debated, and some giggled at why in the world Odd Della-Robia would want a band. I didn't see why it was such a foreign idea. A band. But as I walked I noticed one person not so happy.

"Hey, Stones. I thought you might want to see this." I glanced a Nicholas. He seemed well, frankly, pissed. He held up a band announcement flyer and jabbed at something. I looked closer. He was pointing at-'Drummer, Guitarist and Vocals needed!'. Herve was beside him and, trust me. Herve looked scared out of his wits.

"I thought I was already in your scrap-pile called a band." He glared at me, challenging me to respond.

"We just want to give everyone an opportunity to try out." The lie flowed flawlessly out of my mouth, scaring me. How could I lie so easily? Maybe I was just scared. More likely, I wasn't trying to get hurt. I hadn't been on that side of the 'conversation' yet, but I was pretty sure that was where this was going. Nicholas smirked at me…and I knew immediately what was going to happen.

"Than why didn't you try out? Your name is on the list of 'Band Members Already Joined." Nicholas sneered at me. I was starting to get _very_ freaked out. I panicked.

"I did-I mean I was-I mean Odd-."

"Odd did what? _Forced_ you to join?" I was sure that fear was showing in my eyes. Nicholas's features were twisted into an enraged scowl. He advanced towards me, eyes burning with anger…and something else…joy? Of hurting someone? "Then let me show you my _forced_ position as your drummer-."

"Nicholas, stop it!" Herve exclaimed. He tried to hold his friend back by grabbing the thick tree trunk of an arm.. For his efforts, he was shoved into a locker. "Nicholas-." He tried again. This time it was worse. Nicholas picked Herve up by the collar and tossed him away like a rag doll. He landed a few feet away on his back with a loud and painful thud, and decided to stop resisting.

"I'll get you later! Now, as I was saying…or rather, going to do…" before I knew what was happening, his white shoed foot was flying towards me with an amazing speed. I cringed expecting the pain of it connecting with my stomach. But there wasn't a need to cringe.

Another person's black garbed right foot and leg seemed to come from nowhere. It hooked around his ankle, forcing the kick higher and higher until, off balance, Nicholas fell. The other person's left foot was still on the ground, even as the right foot circled around. It forced the person to face backwards, but for some reason that didn't seem to ruin the defensive-offensive maneuvers.

"Already fighting? So early?" Juno yawned. It seemed entirely normal for her that someone she just outmaneuvered was now in a heap on the floor. Nicholas slowly picked himself up. I could tell that he wasn't too happy to be hit to the ground so easy. He spat at Juno who simply wiped it off her neck and onto her red designed tank top. I could tell what was happening-Nicholas wanted Juno aggravated. Juno just didn't care about the teenager trying too hard to fight. He tried a rebuttal.

"I don't fight girls." He said, turning to the black haired fighter. She stretched her shoulders back, lazily. Juno still had her back to Nicholas. She seemed completely unworried about what was happening. She took a breath and replied almost uncaring.

"No? Then tell me, why wasn't Aelita spared from your kick?" Nicholas was fully on his feet and I could tell his intention was to return the favor and acquaint Juno to the cold, hard, tile floor while her back was turned. I was about to warn her when he charged. Nicholas's eyes were narrowed and his weight was completely forward. My exclamation died in my throat though, as Juno, without turning around, extended a bent arm backward and elbowed him in the stomach.

"I don't even have to use my dominant side." She pulled her right elbow in again. Nicholas only double over, completely winded. "Saddening." Suddenly Nicholas retreated. "Eh, I don't really care. Just get a life outside of Sissi seducing, get a life out of bullying."

"Are you insulting Sissi!" Nicholas stopped walking back; turning to face the teenager who dared confront him about the girl he loved. Nicholas got pink in the face with indignation and rage against the insult. He scowled.

"So what if I am? What are you to do about it?" He ran at her again in his own heavy pace. His intention was just knock her out of the way. Instead Juno turned, raised a black eyebrow, and then raised her am. Without any pressure really behind her fist, she punched him. "I don't even have move my arm as a punch. You're slow…At thinking that is." Nicholas decided to stop, and save that last shred of dignity.

"I don't want to fight you." Juno raised her eyebrows, humored at the remark. All this time Nicholas had been trying to hurt Juno in any way he could. Now he was just a scared little puppy at a master's feet who had been acting tough towards the other dogs.

"Whatever." Juno turned to leave, black jeans rustling.

"You saved me!" Herve exclaimed. He jumped up from where he was surveying the fight and ran over to Juno. She lifted her arm and Herve ran full force into her arm. Herve backtracked a few steps before walking forward again. Why was he saying she saved him? Oh, right. 'I'll get you later.'

"And have you heard about the marshal arts classes Jim has? I bet you could totally beat up the other competitors! You should try it! I'm their manager! I contact other schools and-." Juno slapped her forehead in annoyance. She already had to fight one idiot.

"Go away. I am not in the mood for you." Juno started walking again but then she caught my eye. A small smile played at her red lips. She whispered one word.

"Leave."

-O-O-

_**About one hour later-11:30**_

_**Ulrich POV**_

"It's our play. You freshmen get lost." Odd and the rest of the team glared at the seniors. They always take our turn on the field. Whenever we had practice nowadays we were shoved to the sidelines and told to watch. Watching would make us better, right? Wait for it, wait for it, not quit yet, and here it comes, here it comes, no. Watching will help with nothing. And Jim, who was coaching us, was not here yet! We had nothing to hold against them.

"We called this field! You can't make us leave!" Odd yelled while waving his arms frantically. They chuckled at his vibrant purple outburst.

"How can you 'call a field'? Do they have phones?" I turned to the dimwitted William clone. He looked truly confused as he stared out over the field and searched for the devices. I shook my head towards him and the seniors laughed.

"You can't just kick us off!" Emily shouted, her eyebrows furrowed with indignation. We all glanced at the only girl member of the soccer team. She dropped the soccer ball on the ground and put her left foot on it. Her line of fire was pretty close to the blonde haired head senior. And with her kick, well; I can't say I won't feel sorry for him. She backed up a few steps, and then with a mighty Thud! Kicked the ball towards the boy's stomach. All of us were expecting an Oof! Of pain, but we were disappointed as we heard it smack against hands.

"You are just so full of yourself, aren't you?" He laughed menacingly. His teeth flashed in the afternoon sun as he dropped the ball and turned to the direction of the black asphalt road that wound itself around this part of the field. His foot reared back and I could tell he was happy to deliver the consequence to Emily's brash blow. He kicked. The ball flew high and far, a small splash of black and white against the powder blue endless sky. It came to earth and bounced, rising another twenty feet in the air. We watched sadly, as the small round sphere got farther away until it was a few yards from the road. It was surly to be destroyed.

Out of the corner of my eye I was another black smudge, this one was walking towards the road. It was a person only about seven-and-a-half yards away from us. I focused my eyes of her, wondering where I had seen her. Hallway? No…Class? Still no…Cafeteria? Yes. It was Juno. I continued to watch as she glanced skyward and gauged the speed of the ball. After it came down a little closer Juno took a running start to the area it was falling to. She suddenly jumped up, having outrun the ball. What was she doing? I found out mere seconds later. When she jumped, she brought her left leg up in a kick, but then switched them so her right foot rose in a flinging motion that connected with the ball in mid-air, gradually spinning around until she did an entire revolution and the ball was sent back to where it had originally soared. In other words, she kicked it back and into the seniors face.

"Dude! She just did a bicycle kick! And she _totally_ owned you!" the senior's friend exclaimed. The head senior just stared in hatred at the girl who had just made a soccer ball go from point B and back to point A. He didn't notice that a scarlet teardrop was dripping down his nose from the impact of the once loved soccer ball. All he saw was a black haired girl getting up from a kneeled impact position. Juno rose and started walking diagonally towards the woods that surrounded the other half of the field.

"Hey!" I called. She looked over at me. Her violet eyes _still_ freaked me out. I mean, who has purple eyes? Her long braid swung over her shoulder from the stopped motion.

"What, I gave you your soccer ball." She looked at me with an expression mostly saying 'I dare you to make me stop going to where I'm headed'. I gulped nervously.

"I-Um…" I faltered, not exactly knowing what to say. Thanks? Beat that guy up for no reason more? I had no idea. So I just dropped the conversation. She raised one angled eyebrow and turned on her heel to leave.

"Ms. Lea. Come back here." Jim had arrived. Just at the wrong moment to. I was thinking detention, to the principal, and 'stern' talking to. But, no. Jim walked over to her and picked up the fallen soccer ball. Looking closer I saw it was a little bent out of shape. It was more like an egg shape than the round sphere it had been a few moments before. Juno didn't even blink. It was like this was an everyday occurrence to her.

"Lea, did you kick this ball out of shape?" Jim looked at her. Juno was ultimately unworried about the mess at hand. Maybe life to her was just 'get in, get done, get out'. She flicked her head and the braid went over her shoulder and started a slow swinging motion. Her amethyst eyes didn't seem to show worry. Juno shrugged as if to say yes.

"Than I have an important question to ask you." Uh, oh. Why did you do it? What were your motives? What the hell were you thinking? "Can you join the soccer team?"

Crazy man says what?

"Why would I want to join the soccer team?" Totally uninterested. She sounded board and truthfully, as if this was the last place she wanted to be. I looked at the rest of the team and they gapped at Juno.

"Just, think about it, okay? Tell me tomorrow." Odd and I glanced at each other. True…she was good…

-O-O-

_**Present Time**_

_**Odd POV**_

"How many are left?" Ulrich asked after about six hours and seven roles of tape, attaching a flyer to the window of a classroom door. We finally got back to our other job of flyers. Jeremie seemed happy we were back, seeing as he had been doing all the work until Aelita has joined his sad parade.

"Ten" Ulrich ripped the tape's end off and walked over to me. Jeremie and Aelita also sauntered over. Jeremie carefully started to peel some tape off his turtleneck. Aelita only brushed pink bangs out of her face.

"And where should we put it?" she asked. I thought for a second. The entire main part of the school was drowned in paper. I felt kind of bad for the janitors. And the trees, definitely the trees. I reflected over parts of school students normally were. Dorms-check. Cafeteria-check. Gym-check. Arts building-**not** check.

"Music room!" We started walking there.

-O-O-

About halfway there we heard some music. Was the music teacher playing a recording again? I didn't sound like anything he would play, though. I cocked my head to listen. I managed to catch a few lyrics.

**Should I let you fall?  
Lose it all?  
So maybe you can remember yourself.  
Can't keep believing,  
We're only deceiving ourselves .  
And I'm sick of the lie,  
And you're too late.**

It was weird. Maybe someone was playing a CD in the room. Or near it. I glanced at the others. They looked around in confusion. Where was it coming from who was playing it?

**Don't cry to me.  
If you loved me,  
You would be here with me.  
You want me,  
Come find me.  
Make up your mind.**

I could tell this was the chorus. It had a change of beat and tempo. Then I realized something…This was not a recording. It was…a person playing the song…live. And he or she was good. Very good.

**Couldn't take the blame.  
Sick with shame.  
Must be exhausting to lose your own game.  
Selfishly hated,  
No wonder you're jaded.  
You can't play the victim this time,  
And you're too late.  
**

"Who is playing this?" Jeremie voiced the question on all of our minds. We could only shrug.

**  
Don't cry to me.  
If you loved me,  
You would be here with me.  
You want me,  
Come find me.  
Make up your mind.**

We turned the corner to the music room. Before we got to the door we heard one last part of the lyrics before finding out who it was.

**You never call me when you're sober.  
You only want it cause it's over,  
It's over.**

We looked around. And we all stopped. Juno held my beloved purple guitar, and, with her back to us, continued to play the song. I only heard this song on the radio-once-but I knew that she wasn't missing a note. Not one. I glanced at Aelita, who looked shocked. Juno's fingers worked up and down the neck in perfect tempo, working the strings with ease. She was…amazing.

**How could I have burned paradise?**

She apparently hadn't noticed us. We were being quieter than mice-we were doing everything possible to stay hidden and out of her range of vision.

**  
Get out of the doorway, right now**

I gulped. She switched the lyrics and definitely knew we were there. I shuffled into the room, crimson with embarrassment. Aelita, Jeremie, and Ulrich followed suit. She finished the song.

**So don't cry to me.  
If you loved me,  
You would be here with me.  
Don't lie to me,  
Just get your things.  
I've made up your mind.**

"Sorry I took your guitar, Odd." She turned, but that was after she said my name.

"How do you-wait, I don't really want to know." She placed the guitar back on its stand, closing the music book and slipping it onto a shelf. She turned back to us, her slender fingers had no sign of wear for holding the strings down on the neck of the guitar to get a correct note.

"You-didn't lip sync, did you?" Juno's eyes turned hard against me. Uh, Oh. Wrong thing to say.

"No. But tell me this," her eyes swept over us. "What are you doing here?"

"We just wanted to know-." Aelita started. Her blue eyes sparkled softly.

"If you could join our band!" I interrupted, thrusting a flyer in her face. Jeremie made a sniff of laughter at me. I ignored him.

"Look." Juno said. She put her finger on the sheet of lime green paper and guided it down. "Three different people want me in three different things. Some marshal arts class," Ulrich looked up, surprised. Why would she join marshal arts class? What did she do to have someone need her in his class? It was a mystery to me.

"Your silly soccer team, and now a band." She continued. Her hand went up to a chain around her neck. The black banded ring glimmered in the white glow of the fluorescent bulbs that lit the room. Juno brushed her bangs out of her face. She seemed totally uncaring at the moment-or all moments.

"Well, maybe-." Jeremie said before I cut him off. Jeremie's glasses slipped past the bridge of his nose before he caught them and pushed it back up.

"Juno, look into your feelings…you know you want to do these." I explained in a soft tone. She sighed. Juno looked up, freakish violet eyes catching a hard glare.

"Sorry Obi-Wan, I just don't have time." She brushed past us and into the hall.

-O-O-

_If Juno was a real person, well, she would hate me!_

_Umm...Sorry MistFairie93 or whatever you're going to be called...i forgot, something about evanescent dream...sorry...i used a different song. Sorry!_

_Yes! Another two deadlines...to the wind! It wasn'__t ready._

_So...REVIEW!!_

_Dark Rose_


	8. How to Live and Love Part 3 Pain

"I'll join the marshal arts class but I'll only sub in for your soccer team

_Hi, I'm sorry for the __**one month**__ delay. I didn't get writer's block, I just didn't know what was going into this chapter._

_The chapter is dedicated to __**furuba8080**__ for being a new reader!_

_Disclaimer-I don't own Code Lyoko. Nope, not me._

_**How to Live and Love Part 3-Pain**_

_**Narrator POV**_

Ulrich gripped the black plastic of the phone hard. It creaked and nearly seemed like it would break in a few seconds if he should not let go. It was seven o' clock in the evening, according to the blue clock in his dormitory room. He watched the seconds tick by…tick…tick…tick… He listened to the girl on the phone, her say from Japan. Yumi had been gone for ten days-four days left for her trip. It was not unusual for him to call her, but at the present time he normally _didn't_ call her. Yumi was so far away from his current location. But it had been a stressful day-stress as his father discussing 'goals in life'.

"Yumi, I really miss you…Kadic really isn't the same." Ulrich said.

"Don't worry. I'll be back in four da-day-days…" there was a yawn on the other line of the phone. ""But what's wrong? You sound…stressed." The ebony haired girl on the other side of the _world_ (or so it seemed) knew exactly what was wrong with her best, even going a little further than that, friend.

"Well…I…"Ulrich started. He stopped suddenly.

"Go on…" Yumi prompted.

"I can't get good grades…I can't please by father…I can't seem to fight anymore, I can't get my timing right, I can't get enough impact, I can't-." He was cut off himself by Yumi on the phone line.

"Enough about the 'I cants' At the moment, I can't believe you can't remember the time zone difference. It's two am in Japan. " There was another yawn. I'll call you back at a better time, okay? Sorry if I'm yelling, but I'm-." The Japanese girl yawned suddenly.

"Yumi?" Ulrich asked. He checked the phones screen. It said-

Connected-Japan

He heard a muffled thump as is the receiver of the phone had hit something soft and cloth like. Ulrich came to a conclusion.

'_She fell asleep while talking on the phone…?'_

_**Juno POV The Next Day-Friday, 1:00 pm**_

"I will not join the marshal arts class but I will only sub in for your soccer team if I'm forced." I brushed midnight black bangs out of my eyes. I was taking four minutes out of my lunch break just so I could tell him no. Jim looked at me as normal. His gruff attitude was only broken by the disappointment in my refusal to actually join the team. He leaned forward on his desk. We were in his office, a dark grey painted room with two glassy windows, a few tall oversized filing cabinets, a white net bag full to bursting with orange and black textured basketballs, a flat football, and his chipped brown wood desk.

"Are you sure?" I nodded. How could I not be sure? I had enough to do already with Lyoko. I. Did. Not. Need. This. "I don't just mean sure, are you positive? You could also do tutoring, if that is more into your interests…" What, it's JUST after school activities. After all I've been through; this is not life or death for me.

He leaned back on his chair, making it creak with protest of such weight. I turned to leave, the jade ring on my braid thumping against my back in a rhythm

Ms. Lea," I took a deep breath. My amethyst eyes closed to keep my tracing paper thin, yet glassy brittle temper in check. I imagined myself out of this hell hole of an office and doing something productive and important. Such as Skidd updates, or gaining the trust of the warriors.

"If you don't take up at least one activity, well, that little scandal in the hall yesterday will not be overlooked." His tone was serious. I stiffened. I was wound as tight as a metal coil, ready to spring. So it has taken that long for the bully to call a foul shot against me and tell a teacher so they could administer wrong punishment. Then I narrowed my eyes.

"Is that black mail? Did you even tell Principal Delmas?" There has got to be a way out of this. He can't be serious, right? They can't really do this…right?

"Principal Delmas suggested the idea of you having an activity after school. Now, I would suggest you join the soccer team, as I-." he tried to advise me but with a flick of my wrist, I cut him off. There is no way I'd give into his satisfaction of joining that group of people they call a team. I have been called many things, but peacemaker was not one of them.

"I said I would sub." This conversation was taking an annoying turn. The workings of this boarding school were ending up to be a lot worse than anticipated. It was getting to the point where I would have just stayed in the factory. At least I wouldn't have to go far to get the Xana attack warning. And I could hide from the warriors through the metal work of cogs and beams.

"You need more than just 'subbing' for my soccer players, Juno." I raised an eyebrow gracefully. Now I got it. A physical activity involving the endurance and spending of energy would keep my 'troubled' mind off of attacking anyone. Such as attacking Nicholas. But, there was one way I could get out of this…

"I'll do tutoring and the martial arts class. And Jim, I know you instruct that one too." He let out a chuckle. The entire matter was not even funny. "But hear this." I turned to face him and then leaned on his chipped and splintered desk with my right hand. The bangles, the same ones I was virtualized with, jangled with sudden life. My other bangle-less arm was up and my finger was pointing at Jim.

"If Nicholas tries to assault someone, goes to attack, insults, or even glances at me or someone else the wrong way," I glared into Jim's eyes. "He might as well be at a hospital right now to have medical treatment beforehand."

I turned and left with a stormy attitude, not waiting to get any sort of ill reaction from Jim.

--

"French is the language we all speak, correct?" There was a chorus of 'Yes', 'Yeah', 'Sure, and people nodded, hair shaking in their faces. "But how well?" To put this clearly, Mr. Shocking was not a man to mess with. He was the new French teacher for the ninth and tenth grade this year. Mr. Shocking was tall, maybe six feet and five inches, rather, no…extremely intimidating, dark skinned, shaved head so it looked like a reflective eight ball, and the strictest teacher in the school. He was also the most loved. As weird as it sounds.

In his tenth grade French class, we were focusing on creative writing. It was because of this part of the class I was doing miserably with a seventy percent-otherwise known as a C-. Don't get me wrong, I can write-but I can't write well. I can ace the grammar tests, slip through the knots in vocabulary, and rule the spelling part of class…but when it came to writing creative, suspenseful, short, long, fantasy, memoirs…stories in general…I fail. I have had a very hard time with Mr. Shocking's creative writing class. It seems every time he hands back the countless white sheets of essays he expected us to write from different extravagant prompts and outrageous ideas…he looks at me sadly with brown eyes and I flip the light sheet up to see an angry red marked D or an F adorning the bottom right hand corner. I would never fail to see Mr. Shocking after class and discuss what mistakes I had made…but I had not made any.

"Juno, it is not that you write fragmented sentences or have verb confusion or anything. This is a _creative_ writing class. It was not a good essay for the topic." Then he would return to his polished oak desk and start to grade papers…read a paper back book from where his red bookmark was placed…type on his black laptop computer…

"Yes sir." I would leave miserably moments later to find that his help had only equipped the dense maze of creative words and madness with obstacles and made it much more confusing. No grammar mistakes. No spelling mistakes. No lack of vocabulary. No anything wrong with what I turned in except for the miniscule detail of it being a bad story to read.

--

_**Jeremie POV**_

"And this is something we should check out?" Odd asked, studying the mass of math symbols and outlines that was on my laptop screen. He glanced at me, wondering what it was. His eyebrows arched. "What does it-."

"It _means_ Odd, that even though I did an advanced search of the supercomputer," I sighed before attempting to continue.

"_Advanced_ meaning what?" Ulrich asked. He also looked at the outline full of slope graphs and mathematical symbols. His bangs fell into his eyes and leaned back to prevent falling over as Odd shoved his way in. His laughing green eyes were a little…unhappy with not knowing what I was talking about.

"What does it mean?"

"As I was saying before everyone interrupted me," I glared at the two friends in front of me. Oh, _why_ did Aelita have to take up tutoring people in math and computer work? Why? And now? "I did an _advanced_ scan of the supercomputer," Ulrich and Odd opened their mouths to speak but I didn't let a word leave their mouths. "Meaning it searched through all files, folders, programs, _everything_." Odd and Ulrich looked at each other for a few long seconds. Then they turned to me.

"Meaning…" Odd prompted. I turned back to the vibrant screen of the computer. I studied the symbols one last time, even though I knew that nothing would be there, the data would be missed.

"Aisu isn't there." They looked at me blankly.

"Meanin-." Ulrich started.

"She _ISN'T_ ON THE SUPERCOMPUTER! She isn't on Lyoko."

"Then…" Odd began. His eyebrows were furrowed with confusion.

"Where is she?" Ulrich finished. His chestnut eyes stared at me with such intensity that I looked away and back at the screen.

"I _don't_ know! Why do you ask me? Go ask…" I was about to say 'her'. But 'she' was MIA, Missing In Action, AWOL, Absent Without Official Leave, UA, Unauthorized Absence, not home, gone, missing…Any number of ways to say 'Aisu has left the building.' And how am I supposed to know what happened to her? I was frustrated. Who was not frustrated over this in our little gathering group of friends?

"So…Aisu has gone missing. Right?" I nodded; exasperated that Odd was only repeating what I said. "And we haven't seen a red-head with a stormy attitude on Earth yet, right?" We nodded. "So she's either A) Going somewhere else, or B) she is somewhere with us. But how can she do that?" His uplifting attitude suddenly plummeted when faced with this real life riddle. A frown set in as he attempted to solve this. I repeat the word mostly being used-_attempted_. I doubt Odd could figure this out on his own. _I_ couldn't, Ulrich seemed to be having trouble, a hard expression set upon his features, and Yumi, well, she wasn't here. Neither was Aelita. Stupid tutoring session!

I myself wanted to clock myself on the head with my laptop-_so_ tempting, and yet, no, I couldn't. I went to the computer anyway. As soon as I sat down in the black cushioned swivel desk chair, the grey laptop emitted a high pitched Ding! Of an interjection. The source of the noise was immediately found when a window popped up on the lucid crystal screen.

"What was that?" Odd asked. He stretched as he got up from my now messy bed and walked over to our little gathering.

"Mail…" I answered back, eyes lighting up when I saw it open on its own accord. This means only one thing…

"From who?" the purple clothed boy questioned.

"Odd, it's 'whom'. And it's from Franz Hopper." I clicked the window, activating the scroll feature. I read out loud.

_Riddle Of Aisu_

_Don't forget how you've been taught_

_Especially one two three,_

_You can remember math, can't you?_

_Just don't forget and follow me._

_At least three of you people reading this know music,_

_Remember what consists and makes music be._

_Like a clear rounding ring of different time signatures_

_Understand__ common time and the one less than that beat_

_A pattern, a twist, some lyrics or rests,_

_Each one paints a wondrous picture of sound._

_Sometimes music morphs from easy red to darkening black_

_Nothing stays the same forever in music, it turns around_

_The lyrics are inventive, or they are not heard_

_A touch of light, a touch of dark_

_A truly ghostly sound crawls across your flesh_

_Other worldly lyrics shine like the songs of larks_

_Classic is not the only song now_

_The music is turned into Jazz and Rock_

_Most of you only know what's 'right' not what's 'left'_

_Leaving few to be saved from a startled shock_

_Just remember the different pictures music has_

_Once just brass and woodwind just making flowers_

_A meadow of emerald with violets_

_Every piece composed takes hours_

_Now you have her name and all_

_Description__ included for you to see_

_She is hiding, but you can find her_

_Actually, you know her name is –_

"What was that? Hardly a letter." Odd snorted, glancing up at everyone. I was just as confused and I read it again. And again. Nothing made sense. At least not to me.

"It's a riddle." Ulrich stated. Odd snorted at him for stating such an obvious answer.

"I got that. But what does it mean?" I looked up again. The two computer challenged teens were deep in thought.

"It's clues to help us find out who Aisu is." Odd smacked his forehead. I could practically hear 'NO DUH, CAPTAIN OBVIOUS!!' ringing through my plain room.

His spiked gel filled hair stood strait, even as Odd ran his fingers through it in desperation to find the answer. I heard a knock on the door…or maybe it was only the back of my mind that did.

"Hello? Anyone there? I just got back from tutoring seventh graders and I'm met with a closed door." I leapt to my feet. Aelita! Maybe she could help us understand the riddle. And if not, well, we have another person working on it. I preformed a quick walk to the door and was greeted with…

"Sorry!" Aelita gasped, as three textbooks crashed onto my head. I rubbed it gingerly and pushed my glasses into place.

"It's okay." I handed the heavy books back to her and she walked in, unceremoniously dumping them onto my bed. They burst to an open position, pages fluttering in the wind like nightingale wings. They settled down. But we did not. I led Aelita to the computer screen.

"Look at this." She did so, murmuring the lines and words aloud. When she finished Aelita straitened up, perplexed. Her sapphire eyes looked troubled. Aelita brushed some pink bangs out of her face and then looked at me.

"And this is from my father?" I nodded. "It's…a…riddle…"

We all nodded.

--

_**Narrator POV-Following Jun**__**o-Second to Last Period of the Day**_

"Sissi, I told you this once and I will tell you again, math is about practice, and you don't just learn something and then immediately move on." Sissi turned on Juno. They were leaving the tutoring room and currently were in the hall. Juno, had the unfortunate (cough), I mean, fortunate draw to have to tutor Sissi in mathematics. Now, instead of a study hall, Juno was in a room. With Sissi. Usually tutoring math would be a good thing because Juno was good at equations. But Sissi refused to learn. And while she was at it, decided to be a pest at the same time. Listen, people! That is multitasking!

"Ooh, I'm so scared of the scary eyes you're making." Juno's eyes narrowed even further, violet eyes making a crescent of blinding amethyst. Juno grabbed several books of Sissi's sorry hands and turned to leave, temper halfway to burning point. Sissi scoffed. "Besides, how many octopuses did _you_ have to fight to get your hair such an inky black?"

Juno barely turned, but rotated just enough to see the darkening purple of her iris. "Care to say that again. You're pretty arrogant for someone who can't even learn one plus one in math." Sissi lost her temper first. Her face turned an ugly shade of red, casting a witchlike appearance. Eyebrows turned down, lips back in furry, she took a step forward.

"I am not completely worthless!"

"Oh, yes. Not completely. Because if by chance I ever need help with make-up or losing a boy, by god, you'd better be next to your phone." Juno held her hands up with her thumb and pinky finger out like child playing, er, telephone. "Hello, Sissi? Juno here!" She started walking down the hall, leaving the burning Cretan to simmer in peace. "Now, about this 'mascara' thing, does it go on your eyebrows, or what? What am I supposed to do? And also, there's this guy I hate, any advice on losing him? You do it so well with Ulrich…" Juno's voice faded as she left the hall as the five foot four-and-a-half girl meandered out of sight…of Sissi, anyway.

"Why are you talking to yourself?" Juno nearly rammed into Ulrich, textbooks scattering. She bent low to pick them up. Her braid spilled over the side of her shoulder, adding a temporary block to her books. Juno flicked her head and the ink pleat swung away.

"Sissi. I have to tutor her. Her mind is set to one way-ignore all." Juno got back up; all three bright red textbooks safely back in her lap. She looked at the brunet. He himself had lost something too, a sheet of paper. When Ulrich picked it up, Juno barely caught the words 'Riddle' before he snatched it out of site. Juno was bewildered, but let it slide.

"And my name came into this how?" Ulrich questioned. He looked into her exotic eyes. Sound familiar? Juno gave a small smile.

"How to lose a guy in ten milliseconds." Ulrich raised an eyebrow. He opened his mouth but Juno beat him to talking. "She said she wasn't worthless." The rare smile broke as she looked at her watch. Juno gave a defeated sigh and scowled.

"What?"

"I am being forced to do the martial arts class at four." Juno looked sincerely pissed. Her eyes shone with a dark sheen at the thought. "It is only two hours away."

"What's wrong with that?"

"Everything." Juno's tone was dark and angry.

"Why are you being forced to do it then?" Juno suddenly silenced. Ulrich furrowed his eyebrows, trying t figure out what was wrong. Juno took an inhale and then sighed. Her eye's dark sheen grew, so it seemed like her eyes were close to a black. Juno's mouth set to a strait line, mostly meaning the conversation was over.

"Juno, why are you being forced?" Ulrich tired again. Juno opened her mouth, and while Ulrich was expecting her to say something harsh, something mean, or even a curse, she said something else."

"Just stay out of my life." Juno muttered something about having to leave. She flicked her wrist as a goodbye and started a fast walk down the hall. Ulrich stared after her for a few seconds, shrugged, and continued walking down the hall unbothered. Juno, however was _very_ bothered.

'_I can't believe I just let someone get past my own mental barrier…true, I fight with him on Lyoko, but…Damnit!'' _Juno cursed. _'I can't have anyone get close to me for a friendship! For all I know, even just one friend might take me out and I might be discovered.'_

--

Mrs. Hertz was teaching one of the three sections of tenth grade science in the white rectangular lab room. Her frizzy untamable hair was pulled back into a sloppy gray curly waterfall of a ponytail and kept her smoky hair out of her face. The students in the medium sized three person desks were communication with a whisper like murmur that spread throughout the class-to soft for her to hear specific words and sentences, but with enough volume for the mixed variety of students to carry a conversation. The students talked even though she had assigned the seats herself. Mrs. Hertz turned from the blackboard she was writing on and to the class. She picked up a clear glass jar of crystal clear liquid. She cleared her throat. One girl paid attention. Mrs. Hertz tried again. She got two more. Finally, in exasperation she slammed a lightwood ruler against her desk with a satisfying Smack! She had their attention.

"Can anyone tell me what this is." Mrs. Hertz held the flagon of liquid substance up a little further. The flask was about the size of a peanut butter jar. No raised hands. People glanced from side to side, looking at neighbors and exchanging glances. Finally, one girl with black raised her hand. Mrs. Hertz called on her tiredly.

"Juno?" The girl studied the label less vial for a few seconds. Juno looked into Mrs. Hertz eyes and clearly stated her thoughts on the contents.

"Chloroform." Mrs. Hertz smiled and nodded.

"What does it do, class?" More shifting, looking, whispering…and the girl in black raised her hand again. She was called on.

"Chloroform, or trichloromethane and methyl trichloride, is a chemical compound with formula one carbon, one hydrogen, and three chlorine. It is a member of a group of compounds known as trihalomethanes. Chloroform has myriad uses as a reagent and a solvent. It can be used as anesthetic, a solvent, or reagent in organic synthesis." Juno paused, realizing the class was looking at her with shocked expressions. "It is also considered an environmental hazard..." she trailed off. Mrs. Hertz raised her eyebrows, glanced at the bewildered class, then nodded. She brushed a stray curl from her eyes, straightened her coke bottle glasses and continued her lesson.

"Today and throughout the week we will be studying the effect of chloroform on different animals and species." Mrs. Hertz reached under her desk and picked up a small tank full of green and croaking frogs. She placed it on the desk and then retrieved a cardboard box containing lidded jars. Careful, as to not let the leaping creatures escape, she lowered a frog into each glass.

"I only have enough frogs and jars for you each to have one jar per table." Mrs. Hertz looked at the classes bored expressions. The only person halfway paying attention was Juno. Juno sat strait in her blue metal desk chair, looking at the board with mild interest. Her black jeans were patterned with red circling spirals. Bangs shifted into her eyes and she swept them back for what seemed like the millionth time that day.

Mrs. Hertz had put four out of the eight ribbeting frogs into jars when she asked, "Is anyone interested in getting these? Just to do the experiment at all?" reluctantly, the kids shuffled over to the desks and picked up jars and inspected the frogs closely. Mrs. Hertz filled the rest of the jars and the students collected them. All of the people looked at the frogs before looking at her as if saying 'now what? You're the teacher.'

"Now I'm going to dip these cotton balls in chloroform and as soon as I drop them into the jars, seal them." Mrs. Hertz put a surgical mask to her face to prevent breathing in any of the chloroform as the small bundles of fuzz collected a small amount of the trihalomethane substance. She went around to the desks and dropped one cotton ball into each jar, students slamming the metal disk lids down on the crystal like top. One by one the frogs stopped leaping to escape the glassy prison and stopped reacting to all the waving fingers, peering faces, and tapping in and on front of the glass. A few students raised their eyebrows. A few scooted their chairs away from the glass jar. A few yawned from boredom because the experiment was over.

"Class this is an example of what use for chloroform?" Not a soul answered. They glanced and voiced a few opinions, all far from the answer. "Juno just talked about the uses! Are you admitting you do not pay attention in class? Juno please explain to the class what they missed." Mrs. Hertz looked at the girl, but her face was in a tight grimace of pain, fingers at her temples. Most people would think it would be from the chloroform, but Juno knew better. It was a memory. Caroline Savorani, the person who now sat next to the girl, looked at Mrs. Hertz fearfully, as if asking the teacher what she should do.

"Juno? Are you alright? Should you go to the nurse?" Slowly Juno took a breath and spoke in a pained expression.

"I'm…fine. Just a headache." Closed eyes told the science teacher that Juno was far from okay. With a set authority like expression Mrs. Hertz managed to pull up, she decided an order needed to be issued.

"Juno Lea you are not fine. Go to the nurses office immediately. Caroline, escort her." Both girls came to their feet, Juno slightly shaky.

"Class, about the chloroform. We just used it as an anesthetic…"

--

Juno was lagging behind Caroline as they walked to the nurse's office. It was unusual. Juno was first in track, first to get A's, first in nearly everything. But now, the champion seemed helpless…no, not helpless. Hurt. Juno walked slowly, as if every little shake of her head brought fresh waves of searing unbearable pain. Her violet eyes showed troubled agony. Caroline couldn't figure out what was wrong. _'Maybe it was the chloroform.' _She first summarized. But chloroform could not do that. She had read about it in her text book after Juno herself had explained the uses. _'What is it?' _Caroline nearly wondered aloud. She walked a little further, deep in her own thoughts and wonderings when she noticed the pained girl was no longer a few feet behind her. She turned.

"Come on Juno." Caroline turned to the girl behind her. Juno had stopped, leaning on a tan painted plaster wall. Her breathing was deep and labored, eyes closed in concentration. "Juno…?" Caroline's calm was replaced with worry when the shorter girl suddenly sank to her knees. _'Oh no…'_ Juno sank even further to the white tile floor in a six point stance, palms pressed against the cold. _'No…'_ was all Juno could think. The memory were confusing her; actual vision instead of darkness caused a hard striking pain everywhere in and on her head. Nothing she could do would stop the single strand flashing past, foggy and slashed with black streaks like the slash of three knives making her unable to get any idea of what the playing in her head was. Caroline watched in horror as the one girl she thought could definitely stand on her own sank into a deep and painful unconsciousness. Caroline stared in fear before turning the knocked out girl from her side to her back. Juno's head lolled sideways from lack of support.

'_What do I do?'_ the answer was as easy as it was going to get. She glanced at the classroom next to her. It read in bold black print-

**Indiana Shocking**

**French**

**Room-211**

Caroline quickly opened the door to his classroom, disturbing the other section Mr. Shocking was currently teaching. He looked up, eyebrows raising until he saw the panicked look spread across her features. Mr. Shocking turned away from his class, putting a heavy hand on Caroline's small shoulder. Caroline was loosing control really fast. She had never seen someone pass out…even someone as strong as Juno. Not to mention, she was squeamish. Very

"Caroline, please calm down and tell me what is wrong." Mr. Shocking asked, no, more like ordered. His tone was kind yet there was a hint of urgency.

"Juno-she-she passed out in the hall. We wer-were going to the nur-nurses office sin-since she g-got a head-ach and-and-" Mr. Shocking straitened at the news. The class he was teaching gasped and several got up to look out the tiny window in the door to the hall. Mr. Shocking turned.

"Sit DOWN!" he thundered. The class shrank back and slid their chairs out from their desks and hurriedly sat down as to not upset the powerful teacher. "Now, I want all of you to do the grammar packet I assigned you for homework tonight NOW. I will come back in ten minutes." Mr. Shocking nudged a student headed for the pencil sharpener out of the way and told Caroline to show him to Juno. They exited out of the oak door and walked swiftly into the hall. Juno had not regained any awareness…much less come out of her state of being. Without saying anything, Mr. Shocking stepped to Juno, heaved her up and put her in his arms bridal style. The awake Juno would have fought that, fought _bitterly_, but the unconscious form of Juno stayed limp in the large teacher's arms. Juno looked small compared to the big arms that held her.

"Caroline, go back to class." The girl nodded mutely, before practically _running_ back. Mr. Shocking turned and carried girl down the hall and to the nurse's office. Mr. Shocking opened the door to reveal a busy looking Nurse Yolande. She had paper work spread across three of the beds in the infirmary and the last one had a few plastic file folders scattered on top of the blue hued sheets. The nurse looked up as the door opened. Her eyes widened in shock and the pen she held in her mouth for safe keeping fell to the bed.

"What happened?" She asked, running to an only partially covered bed and clearing it off with a single sweep of her white sleeved arm. Mr. Shocking shook his head and gently deposited the limp form onto the bed. Juno still did not wake up.

"All I know is that she fainted in the hall when already going to your office for a head-ach." Mr. Shocking sighed tiredly and glanced at his watch. "Yolande, if you don't mind, I have a class still, and I…" The nurse shook her head.

"Not at all. Go ahead, I'll take care of her." The teacher smiled gratefully and left the office. Nurse Yolande started to put Juno under the covers of the bed…not that Juno felt it. The nurse sighed. Not many times students passed out. especially someone who hadn't needed the medical office yet. Juno hadn't even had allergies.

But it wasn't anything medical Juno had fainted from. Inside her head the single vision were getting clearer, more pronounced. And if you listened closely you could hear one word escape from her mouth-not even a whisper.

'_Mira…'_

--

_As I said, I'm really sorry. But, it is here…right? Next time there will be action, promise! Like, fighting action! Yay for fighting!_

_Hey, I have three contest for you. I want you guys to try to guess my favorite Rolling Stones, song, Beatles song, Evanescent song, Nightwish song, and/or Within Temptation song._

_Try to solve the riddle!_

_And the last one, tell me what your favorite line in this chapter was!_

_Please review, it helps my self esteem._


	9. Fight For Our Lives and Others as Well

"Angel, have you ever considered talking to people

_I don't own Code Lyoko_

_Translations-_

_Japanese:_

_Touzoku-Thief_

_**Fight for Our Lives and Other's As Well**_

"_Angel, have you ever considered talking to people?"_

"_People, Mira? People? There are five of us here, one of us out…hardly 'people'." The crimson haired girl raised an eyebrow. "Also…Angel? When was my name changed from Aisu to Angel?" The boy in front of her was just as tall as she was, five foot six. Not too tall for a boy, but not short. He had silvery white hair, not short, about the halfway down his back. It was spiked in numerous places so that if they had any knowledge about Dragon Ball Z characters, would think the boy had imitated the level three saiyan with bangs, not quite as much volume, and hair not swept back. His bangs were held back (to extent, meaning it was no help what so ever) by a green and black headband around his forehead. Dark brown eyes showed innocence, and small lips showed happiness. He had a long torso, yet it didn't make his legs small. The boy had pianist's fingers, long and tapered, good for gripping pens, carrying books…picking locks... He was wearing a light-ish blue to teal short sleeved over shirt with a white to cream shirt underneath. There was a four-and-a-half inch thick sash around his stomach, the same color as the undershirt, tying in a simple knot at the back. He had dark blue pants on, not baggy and not gripping his skin. He had a single marking under _his_ right eye,it looked like his left eye for those who gazed at Mira. It was a silver 'scar' from his eye, stopping about an inch from his chi, and two slashes across that headed towards his ear. Mira crossed his pale arms, over shirt and sash creasing from the pressure applied. He leaned against the trunk of one of the few tall trees that inhabited this section of Blazen. They were actually on a branch at the time being._

"_Oh, come on, Angel. We've all made our own nicknames…except that you made mine after 'Manual re-programmer Virus' didn't fit me…" Mira chuckled. "To extent." He pulled out a solitary silver switchblade, a flat, thin blade that could adjust to pick any lock. The handle was simple, black and silver with the mechanism for locking the blade in place._

"_And…" Angel enquired._

"'_Application Interpreter Software User'? Remember that Hopper made that name before deciding your purpose. 'Application Interpreter Software User' has nothing to do with being the protection agency around here." The girl turned her head, hair spilling over the shoulders of her black Kimono. "That, and the, uh, 'extra' Hopper added to your back." Mira had a point. Angel did have that programming and was the assigned protector of the A.I's on Lyoko-Hopper had made sure of that._

"_Well, __touzoku__, you have a point." Mira raised an eyebrow, sliding the black back into his hidden pocket. Mira's eyes lost the totally innocent feel and he returned to his normal self after trying to warm Angel up to her new nickname._

"_T__ouzoku? Now, I know I was assigned to learn Japanese and German for this thing…but touzoku? So harsh, Angel, so harsh." It was true; the computer programmer (Franz Hopper) had assigned them all to learn German plus one other language. Except for Angel, who had to learn ALL of the languages. Comes with being the protector. It is nigh impossible to hack into a system and learn the security features without knowing the language first. One of the perks of being the, eh, 'guardian angel' of the force._

"_You started it. After all, that is your purpose… touzoku" Mira glared. His eyes turned a fierce amber and he looked at the crimson and scarlet virtual sky. Chocolate eyes showed exasperation and close to exhaustion._

"_Why do you torture me so?" He asked, not necessarily to Angel, but to the person who usually sat at the computer chair in the factory. Mira was, of course, not answered, as Hopper had finished his work for the day... Angel shook her head, snorting at her companion's sarcasm. She fingered the red strap on her shoulder, holding the mighty cleaver sword designed to protect._

"_You happen to be the data thief here, so get used to it touzoku." Mira smiled. It was sweet sometimes, completely scaring other times. Amber eyes looked down from the sky and to Angel. A smile tugged at Angel's lips._

"_Touzoku I may be, but I am still your friend."_

"_True, Mira. True." Angel sighed, sinking into a sitting position on the branch, cross legged, hands in her lap, and head up to survey the violet landscape. _

"_Why did I have to be protector, Mira?" Mira sat as well, sighing._

"_I don't know, Angel. But you've already got it marked. Just look at your hands." Angel did so. The familiar marking standing out. It was a spiral made up of strait lines-six in all-with a single dot in the middle. It seemed to be branded into her skin-it was, by coincidence._

"_I do…I..."_

_Flash-New memory…or part of one_

_A scream of undeniable terror, a sound of a blade being unsheathed, and the unmistakable sound of metal slicing through the thin fabric of skin._

"_Angel! Angel! Help…"_

"_**Mira!**__"_

_Fade._

_--_

Nicholas was mad. Well, now he was always mad. But at this moment in time, his punching bag (Juno Lea) was unconscious. She had been unconscious for a day. A day! What was he supposed to do with his pent up and misplaced anger? Nicholas supposed he could just beat another person up for no reason, but it just wasn't _fun_ when nobody fought back. Sure, people in the hallways moved away to give him room-but where was the fun in it? He could tell you-there was no amusement. So all he could do was walk down the bland hallway, picking victims, releasing threats, occasionally looking at people with a death glare. But they never _retaliated!_ They just shrunk.

Nicholas practically dared anyone to try his patience, but nobody did today. He supposed Ulrich might, but at the time being, Nicholas could not find him. It was _boring! _Why him? The dirty blonde haired youth climbed the stairway, nearly tripping on the odd step. The odd step was an inch taller in height. Why? Well, how was he supposed to know? Nicholas was only glad there was nobody around to see it. And laugh at it. And spread the news while they were at it.

Nicholas succeeded in climbing the stairs without any more difficulty and walked to his room. He pulled out the bronze colored ridged key and slotted it into the rusty lock with mild difficulty. Nicholas entered his room, dropping his belongings onto his bed and sat down next to the backpack spilling over with books. He stared at the green plastic of his clock. What an ugly clock. Lime green. Now that he thought on about the object of time, it was Sissi's. She gave it to him. Now Nicholas paid attention to what was on the clock. So late, at three thirty in the afternoon. What a wasted day.

Nicholas was too self interested to notice the small black cloud of smoke drifting out of his white puckered outlet.

Nicholas was far too unobservant to realize that it was snaking its way around and up his ankle.

Nicholas was too stupid to even fight back as the smoke took his mind.

_--_

Ulrich groaned, leaning back in his seat. He hadn't seen Juno at the martial arts class. At first he thought she had skipped out. Juno had said she didn't want to go-but upon questioning found it to be much more shocking. Who would have thought that Juno, of all people, would have fainted? It made no sense. None. What so ever.

Ulrich glanced at Odd for a few seconds. Odd was immersed in another handheld video game. Odd was on his back, rolling slightly side to side, pink tongue poking out the corner of his mouth, a look of fierce concentration over his features. This was one of the two things that he actually put his attention to. His love of video games was never to be trifled with. Odd rolled over onto his stomach.

"Ha! Got you!" he cheered, a huge grin plastered on his face. "Game over!" Ulrich looked at him in question. Odd had dropped the gaming system in his celebration.

"You got that game yesterday. Are you done already?" Odd nodded, grin now lit up like a neon light. He sprang off his bed and hit the floor. Odd straitened up, grin growing even larger.

"He shoots, it hits, it's finished! All in a day's-"

**Help, I need somebody,  
Help, not just anybody,  
Help, you know I need someone, help**.

"Work?" Odd finished as my cell phone rang. Ulrich picked up the black electronic plastic device. "Jeremie?" Odd asked. Ulrich nodded. He gazed at the wall, a look of utter and complete disappointment on flashed across his features. With a small press of the red off button, Ulrich set the phone down and glanced at Odd. The brunette's expression was all the blonde needed to make the assumption.

"Odd, we have to go to the factory. Now." A whole new look Odd had set on his face had dominated over the normally happy expression. Odd nodded and both teens got up from their various positions. They left out of the scratched oak door, and started to run down the hallway.

_--_

Through the black mist behind her eyes, Juno just barely started to regain conscience. First came the feeling of rising through a dark blackness, the feeling of light through her eyelids.

_No..._

Juno opened her eyes. She was aware she was on a bed, under sheets. Also, she realized that someone had opened her room and dug out pajamas. Which she was dressed in. The black silky fabric was unique and easily recognized. Juno turned her head to the left and saw on the blue plastic chair beside her bed some clothing that someone had taken from her wardrobe. The outfit consisted of black jeans with a chain belt around the waist, a black beater tank top that was designed to show a narrow strip of her stomach, and her black and red tennis shoes. Juno grabbed the clothes and hastily put them on, ignoring the well known object in the pocket of the black jeans. Juno then stood-to receive a wave of nausea wrapping around her stomach like a snake. Her vision went a close black from standing up too quickly. After a few seconds, Juno opened closed eyes she hadn't known she had shut, now standing perfectly strait, and perfectly fine.

Juno turned when the door opened to reveal Nurse Yolande, who walked to her desk, and dropped something on her chair paying little mind to girl standing by her bed. The only act of knowledge that the girl was awake was to hand her a little cartoon Dixie cup with water three fourths of the way up it's side and to hand her two red circular pills the size of the end of her middle finger's nail.

"What is this?" Juno asked. Her voice was rough and she coughed a few times, throat dry. The nurse handed her a pill bottle and then left the room again. The label read 'Advil'. Juno narrowed her eyes. There was some mistake here. She glanced at the pills in her hand again. On instinct she opened the bottle of pills. Inside the bottle she saw _orange oval_ pills. Juno dropped the pill bottle in shock onto the bed's white sheets and almost in panic strode over to the desk. The chair held a single labeled flask, containing two other matching pills. Juno turned the crystal jar over and read the label.

Pure Caffeine-Each Pill5 grams

With that small bit of information, Juno gasped. Ten grams of caffeine was… was deadly. Juno looked up, alarmed. What-Why? In a sudden thought, she whipped her head around, looking for the nurse. Juno returned the pills to the vial and slipped it into her pocket, hiding it from Xana's grasp. The light flickered, bringing her attention to it instead. She thought the small white lamp that rested on the bedside table's bulb was failing. What she didn't expect to see was black smoke billowing forth from the electrical socket, cutting the current of electrons from the lamp, causing it to flicker and eventually leave the room as dark as the smoke. Then, finally, Juno felt the cold circle of her ring on her chest. Activated tower…and she thought she knew what was happening.

The smoke attacked her, pinning Juno's legs together and then winding up getting to her ear-an opening to her head. Juno nearly cried out in shock. Juno hopped with pinned legs, slamming herself against a plaster wall. The inky smoke loosened a small ways. Juno tried harder and harder, kicking herself into the wall to slacken the vice like grip. The smoke had reached to her chin, and in one last attempt to break free, Juno jumped, slamming the side the smoke had traveled up so hard she could almost feel the blood vessels breaking to form a bruise. The black smoke finally let go of her enough so that Juno wiggled free and high tailed it to the window. With one last look at the smoke coming at her again, she jumped.

_--_

Ulrich and Odd ran down to the end of the corridor, out the oak doors, and into the sunlight of the area outside of the commons. And ran (literally) right into Juno. She simply glanced up at the two boys and gave a simple explanation of why she was running and asked a simple question.

"Okay. The nurse tried to poison me. There was black smoke coming out of the electrical outlet and it tried to get into my ear. What's going on?" Odd glanced at Ulrich and vice versa.

"How, exactly, would she be able to poison you?" Ulrich asked to the black haired girl in front of him. Juno knew he was avoiding the black smoke question. But, she gathered, that he had just found out the activated tower was trying to take control over certain people.

"Caffeine. Five milligrams of caffeine. In a pill. She tried to get me to take two." Ulrich noticed a bruise was forming on her shoulder, a long bruise, to be exact. It spread from the point of her shoulder down to all over the point of her shoulder. As if Juno herself had rammed herself into something repeatedly…and hard.

"…so…what does that mean?" Odd questioned. Odd knew caffeine. He woke up to needing some along with several people he knew…and just to be safe…

"About 102 cans of amp, 227 and a half cans of Coca-Cola, and 71 cups of brewed coffee. Meaning 225 cans of Cherry Coke plus me equals dead." Her monologue, while containing humorous details, also was spoken with absolute certainty. This was not a matter of laughter-not with these events.

"Wait, what came first, the poisoning or the smoke?" The samurai tried to get to the very details of the events.

"Poison. Then smoke." So…Xana first wanted to get Juno out of the way. But why? What did Juno do to Xana? As far as he knew, Juno had no knowledge of the supercomputer. Or Xana. Or anything of the likes. So why was the virus trying so hard to wreck the lives of someone he didn't know…and then try to recruit her to his army. What was Xana doing?

The entire thought process was killed when someone ran into Odd, knocking him off balance. The figure held Odd down and grabbed his exposed throat. Juno's eyes widened. Herve started to squeeze Odd's windpipe. In one fluid motion, Juno punched Herve across the face so hard he fell backwards and off of Odd. Odd gasped and spluttered. He got to his feet, looked at Ulrich, and nodded. Juno, in the midst of the boy's silent communication, took out a small square and black typing device the size of the palm of her hand with a finger width screen, and wrote a small message on it.

'_I might be late or never come at all._

_My apologies_

_Aisu_

_--_

"What does she mean, she isn't coming!" Jeremie shouted, just finding the message on the computer screen in front of him. He pounded furiously on the computer keyboard as if that could make the words disappear and he would find the A.I herself laughing on Lyoko. The message remained, however, and it seemed to laugh at him as the blocky text shimmered and winked out of existence. That was too much bad news. Already there was a lost fighter. Jeremie glanced at the one other in the room. Aelita, concern written on her face while she wordlessly repeated the message. Her soft blue eyes seemed to harden, ever so slightly.

"Xana is taking power from the four of the replika's super computers. We can only assume the worst when he needs that much power to support the attack."

"Where is-" Aelita started, but was cut off as her cell phone rang a jaunty, lively, and fun tune. "Hello?" She answered the call.

"We're here, go to Lyoko, Ulrich and I are coming." Odd said, and true enough, the three in the room heard the elevator start.

"And Guys," Ulrich said into Odd's phone, with serious tone etched into his voice. "We have to go fast."

_--_

It was true, that even though Juno was small for her age by an inch or two, she had just woken up from unconsciousness, and even had the entire school of possessed people circling around her to come fight; Juno had still gotten her charges to the factory. She sent a message to Jeremie about not being there, and even had taken out a few of the possessed.

Juno jumped and arched her back in an attempt to get away from a possessed. She started to perform a long traveling back handspring when two possessed ran up to her sides while in the center of the first arc. Juno spread her legs so her body resembled a capital T, kicking the possessed out of the way. They went to the ground, unable to stand up after such a powerful kick. Had this maneuver been done by a normal human, the possessed would be able to stand. It would take several kicks to knock it out of the running. But because Juno was not a human and was a form of artificial intelligence, the possessed stood only one chance.

Juno ended the handspring, only to turn rapidly and send another that had grabbed her wrist flying back into another possessed. Unfortunately, the hand that had been connected to her wrist still _was _connected to her wrist. In a jumble of arms and legs, Juno ended up on the bottom, pinned to the ground by a junior girl. The Xana symbol flashed in the junior's eyes as the she squeezed Juno's throat. Juno gasped for air. With her jugular artery compressed and her throat narrowing, she only had one chance to do anything. Juno drew her legs to her chest and then threw the possessed over her head. Juno had no time to recover as she was tackled by one possessed after another. She threw them off, and leapt away, running far faster than ever before. Juno slammed her fist into a possessed. The taken over boy's knees buckled and then fell to the hard packed dirt.

Taking advantage of the opening, Juno jumped up far too high to be considered human and landed with a sickening thud on top of a possessed. She jumped up in an arc to execute a dive roll. Her hands hit a possessed's shoulders forcing it to crumple, and then hit the ground in a forward roll. The roll brought her to a halt next to a pair of legs. As she looked up she saw none other than…

Nicholas.

_They better deactivate the tower soon._

_--_

_**Meanwhile**_

"Look out, there are monsters headed your way." Jeremie informed the group. Aelita answered with an okay, and the team of three ran across the frozen plain of the Ice Sector. Odd whipped his head around. He stopped, letting the others run on a few steps.

"I thought I heard something…" His voice was puzzled, and his violet cat ears twitched uncertainly. Ulrich and Aelita stopped their foreword pace as well, cocking their heads to attempt to pick up any sound. Ulrich looked around, seeing nothing. Hearing nothing. Then Aelita picked up on something. She looked closely at the opaque ice block two yards to the right. It seemed silly, as she thought she saw something red. Until a scarlet beam darted out from behind it, hitting her square in the chest. Aelita was lifted off the ground and skidded back a few feet, landing on her back.

"Aelita!" Jeremie called. "You just lost half of your life points!" Slowly, the princess got up from her position, and grimaced.

"Guys, this is not the definition of fast." Odd reminded. He sprinted away from the group, doing a one handed cartwheel and firing at the monster behind the block simultaneously. The monster hissed-a clue that the creature was a Cobra.

"Why exactly are we going fast?" Aelita wondered out loud. She and Jeremie were in the dark on why exactly this mission had to go faster.

"Because-" Ulrich started, only to be interrupted by Odd.

"Um…can we talk about this when there aren't four cobras over here?" They rushed into action. Aelita waved her hand over her star charm bracelet, flying high above the landscape on translucent pink wings. She showered the Cobras with energy fields, hitting one and holding the rest back. Ulrich triplicated, trying to confuse the serpent to gain an opportunity window. All three of his clones moved left, making the snake focus on its side just before Odd, creating more fantastic ways to move around, tackled the head of the Cobra in back. The snake writhed and bucked its head forcing Odd to dig his claws into the eyes. It hissed in pain, red beams spitting from its mouth in blind fury. One beam hit a clone, disintegrating it. That's when Ulrich's plan went to the air.

Ulrich had been planning to have clones feign a few strikes and then super sprint the other way, jumping up to strike the Xana symbol. Instead, because of the lost clone he had to drastically change that. Ulrich attempted to fake the Cobra out by twisting away from the head at the last second. Instead, on top, ready to slash. But all three warriors on the field forgot the last Cobra. The last clone fell apart from a strike. Just as Ulrich started to down strike the final remaining Cobra hissed and lunged, sinking razor sharp fangs into Ulrich's side. He cried out, back arching only to cause the fangs to penetrate deeper. Odd quickly shot down his own Cobra before aiming very carefully.

"**Laser Arrow!**" Odd called. The single arrow fired and dug into the Xana Eye. The serpent disintegrated, but left a good-bye gift of pain. Two of the four fangs that had been in Ulrich's side remained. Aelita fired another shot at the Cobra he was on, catching Ulrich on the fall.

"Thanks." He winced, looking at his side. The body suit was punctured, but as usual the skin remained unmarked. Ulrich shook his head. He had been too impatient. "Jeremie, how many life points do I have left?"

"You have…fifteen." The three looked at each other. That wouldn't even survive one more hit! Much less the entire way to the tower. They started running again over the light blue landscape, looking for the tower that was too far away to see. It had to be around here somewhere! Maybe it was at the end of this cliff and on the one below. It just had to be. Odd sprinted ahead, purple tail swishing intently. He sat and sat in a hunched position, ears twitching.

"Hey guys! Look! I found an ice slide." Odd jumped down into the small tunnel, but kept his arms out and spayed so he wouldn't slip down the icy depths. Odd looked at his friends coming towards him with a wide smile and withdrew his arms and slid down. A few longs seconds later they heard a muffled call out. A warning.

"And…guys? I also found William."

"That's impossible. He didn't show up on the scan." Jeremie admonished.

"Oh yeah? Then who's the big guy in black armor swinging the big sword?" Ulrich and Aelita exchanged glances before Ulrich super sprinted to the tunnel and unsheathed both deadly katonas. Without a moment's hesitation, he dived down. The chute twisted left and right, forcing Ulrich to slide up the sides higher and higher. He shrunk down to be more arrow dynamic. The chute exited the side of the cliff. Ulrich shot out perfectly horizontal with the ground, and perpendicular with William's chest as Odd made shield after shield to block the heavy buster sword's blows. Ulrich hit spot on, coming close to devirtualizing him. He jumped away as William recovered.

"Where is Aisu!?" Xana demanded in William's and his own voice combined. Xana didn't wait for an answer as he swung William's sword. I was pairied by both Katana's crossed in an X, but Xana swung again.

"_Stop fighting him!" _William demanded, struggling to take his body back.

"_No. And you hate him too."_ Xana returned, easily taking the body's maneuvers to advantage. Ulrich slashed and Xana charged the buster sword with dark energy and swung the black smoke at Ulrich. Ulrich sprinted out of the way, but was backed up into the wall. Xana tried one more time.

"_No!" _but it was too late. Ulrich was devirtualized instantly.

_--_

_(Random fan rushes in with a broadsword) "I will kill you!! TWO MONTHS TO UPDATE!!"_

"_I'm Sorry!" (Pulls out a pen) "Pen's mightier then the-" (Pen is chopped in half) "Uh…never mind." (Runs for cover)_

_Okay! I'm sorry it's late._

_I'm sorry the ending sucked._

_I'm sorry that it was so incredibly boring anyway._

_Oh, by the by, Cheerful Pessimist isn't using the account, so, the name will be changed to Dark Rose. Okay, bye!_

_REVIEW!_


	10. Fire!

_Disclaimer-I don't own Code Lyoko._

_**Fire!**_

The first thing Ulrich saw was his tennis shoes. He groaned, leaning out of the scanner feeling terrible. Ulrich rubbed his head and took a few seconds to orient himself._ Okay, one. I was devirtualized, two. I'm in a scanner feeling _really_ bad, three. The attack was mass possession…Juno!_ Ulrich mentally slapped himself awake, shrugging off the horrible feeling. He stumbled to the elevator and slammed the heel of his hand against the round red button. The elevator doors shut with a low grinding sound and the elevator lift jerked into an upwards movement. Ulrich leaned against the wall getting him together.

The doors of the computer lab opened with a hiss of steam revealing Jeremie with an intense look of concentration and determinations on his face. He typed a few keys while monitoring Odd and Aelita's progress.

"Jeremie, I'm going up." Ulrich reported, not stepping from the elevator.

"Why?" Jeremie replied distracted.

"How do you imagine Odd and I got to the factory?"

"I thought you guys just fought your way through." He sighed, watching Odd's life points drop by five. "You know, with the possessed everywhere and all coming at you guys specifically."

"Wrong." Ulrich replied firmly.

"What? What do you mean?" Jeremie was confused. The Lyoko team was always the target of Xana's attacks when they weren't on humans in general.

"I said wrong. Odd and I _were_ the targets-"

"But you just said that you-" Jeremie interrupted.

"With Juno Lea." Ulrich sighed. "We didn't get to the factory by ourselves. Juno fought with us until we got to the manhole. And as long as she wasn't overpowered she is still fighting." At the mention of Juno, Jeremie goy silent. His fingers clenched. "What?" Ulrich asked.

"Juno. She's-she's just-" he snorted out of his nose. Ulrich got the idea they didn't particularly liked each other. Or, more like flint against steel. Sparks of hate.

"Well, I'm going to help her." He rolled his eyes. "Rivalry between you guys or not, Xana tried to poison Juno and then possess her. She didn't back down, so I'm helping." Jeremie turned back to the computer screen, obviously unnerved by Xana's actions. Ulrich elbowed the red button and the lift's doors closed and the cables started to tow the elevator up the shaft.

O-o-O-o-O

"Oi! Einstein! Tell us when Xana thinks it's funny to send William!" Odd shouted. He did a cartwheel avoiding the white Buster Blade the possessed boy held. Odd landed on both feet again and crouched holding his arm up, aiming at his controlled friend. "**Laser Arrow!**" Two arrows parted company with the rest in Odd's stock, one hitting its designated target on the arm and the other flying past his ear. Xana growled through William's mouth. The arrow hadn't been enough to temporarily devirtualize the possessed boy. Xana willed William's body to turn to smoke. The smog raced through the gap in Odd's legs.

"What the-" Odd exclaimed, attempting to turn in time to parry William's sword. The opportunity was lost, however, as Odd was suddenly grabbed below the armpits by the two small hands of Aelita. She lifted him into the air and out of danger. They tried to stay aloft, but slowly they started to sink lower and lower to the frost colored ground. Eventually they touched ground, not far from William. He growled.

"Aelita, we need to run, okay?" Odd shouted turning and firing laser arrow after laser arrow. But his own force of power was not strong enough to totally be a huge threat. They were in trouble…he just knew it.

O-o-O-o-O

When Ulrich finally made it to the school he saw a surprising sight. A ring of possessed circled around one area. Ulrich froze. Was Juno inside of it? He was soon answered.

A muffled cry rang in his ears as a possessed on the left side from his view of the group was slammed to his back by a black haired girl. Juno landed on his chest with bend knees before pushing off her right foot and sprinting. Something silver glinted in her left hand as her head whipped back to look at the group. Juno's braid swung back with the polished light green stone ring reflecting light in the late afternoon sun. Her breathing was heavy as she suddenly turned sharply and ran strait towards the woods. A twig snapped at Ulrich's left and he momentarily zoned out of the action and was painfully brought back.

"Uf!" Juno groaned as she collided with Ulrich. She rolled to her knees and rubbed her head. "Please, _please_ tell me you haven't been here the entire time. If you were…" she staggered to her feet. Juno looked left and right for a few seconds before leaning over the base of a maple tree. Imbedded in the hard wood tree's base was a knife about the length from the tips of Ulrich's fingers to half of his wrist. Juno reached down and gripped the handle. In a smooth motion she pulled the knife out.

"No…Um-" Ulrich met her eyes only to look down again in within a few seconds. Juno's piercing gaze was impossible to look at for more than a few seconds. "I just got back here. I…" Ulrich couldn't think of anything to say. He rarely talked to anyone outside of the group without blanking every conversation.

"Whatever." Juno brushed off his lack of words and turned to go out of the woods. Then she blinked. "Duck."

What?" Ulrich asked, bewildered. Juno's eyes widened and she pushed Ulrich to the ground. She herself stood where Ulrich had been moments before. A long tree branch held by a rather large senior hit her in the side. Juno's breath escaped in a gasp. Juno sucked in a lungful of air as the senior pulled the branch back for another swing. There was no time for either teen to react as except for one motion. Juno turned her head far to look left before throwing her rotating her head right hard enough to give whiplash…to a normal human. The effect was her long braid swinging at a high velocity and hitting the possessed in the temple. Normally, that wouldn't hurt. With a jade _rock_ at the end of her braid, the senior collapsed. Juno grabbed Ulrich's arm and pulled him to his feet.

"Uh…sorry about that." She said. Juno began walking to the school again but Ulrich grabbed her arm. "What?"

"Why do you have a knife?" Juno sighed before addressing his question.

"I learned that you don't necessarily have to knock them out, more like cause enough pain to short circuit their-" she stopped, realizing her choice of words. "The point is I'm cutting them in non-lethal areas and they collapse." Juno turned her head to Ulrich's disapproving gaze. She _wrenched_ her arm out of Ulrich's grasp with a little too much force and leapt back into the fray.

_I will never get her, will I?_

O-o-O-o-O

"Ulrich, duck." By now, Ulrich had come to trust Juno's word…and when she told-no, ordered him to do something, he did it…or nearly get hit, punched, kicked, bashed…the list went on. Sure enough, the leg and foot of a possessed whooshed overhead, causing a few strands of hair to be unsettled by wind. Ulrich swept his fist up in a hard uppercut to the possessed. Juno had been right, as usual. The possessed did not require the effort or time to painstakingly knock out one without hurting him or her further. Every so often, Ulrich would come across possessed laying on the ground with gash or puncture wound somewhere on their arm.

Ulrich turned to his left as a fist whistled past his ear. He jabbed his arm back, hand curled in a tight fist, a buried it into the stomach of an eighth grader. Ulrich backed up as another possessed started to pressure him at his front, only to meet a rather solid feeling person behind him. From what he could tell, the person was about his height, slimmer, and leaner. He turned his head just as Juno turned hers.

"Nice positioning. Now we're stuck."

"How was I supposed to know you were there?" Ulrich answered back, getting more and more nervous as the possessed started to close in. On his left one came to close and Juno leapt out to the left and swiftly punched the possessed seventh grader on the mouth. With almost eagle-like agility, Juno jumped back into line with Ulrich. Ulrich, slightly less gracefully as the girl next to him would have been, shifted his weight to his left foot and kicked his right foot outwards. He pulled his leg back in quickly, even before his victim had fallen to the ground.

Ulrich heard a cry behind him a looked just as Juno fell to the ground, the back of her head bleeding profusely. Juno's hair changed to a dark scarlet as possessed turned to Ulrich with a dark Oakwood chair leg. The possessed grinned, Xana symbol flashing in its eyes. Juno _had_ to be unconscious. That much power…and to the back of her head!

The possessed drew closer to the immobile Juno and Ulrich, before Ulrich noticed that some were turning away from one another and leaving a pathway. Ulrich couldn't see who, but he was sure that someone was walking through the gap. The chair leg was pulled back to be swung again. Ulrich was too engrossed in the sight of the pathway to even notice as the possessed started another monstrous swing until it was almost to late. He couldn't duck, he couldn't grab it, and he couldn't do anything.

"Get down, you idiot!" within seconds Ulrich had been successfully kicked in the back of the knees and was acquainted with the dirt again. Miraculously, Juno herself was…awake…and not really in the best of moods. Ulrich spat out a mouthful of dust and then glared at her.

Why'd you kick me?" his voice was slurred as he spat out another mouthful of dirt.

"Why'd you just stand still?" she imitated his slur. "God…what hit me?" she groaned

"Chair le-" Ulrich had no time to finish his sentence as all of the sudden, Ulrich was grabbed by the back of his shirt and thrown over the top of the crowed of possessed. By Juno herself. Ulrich's stomach did an uneasy flip-flop as he somersaulted in a sprawled position before grabbing an outstretched tree branch. He could feel skin break and blood run. Ulrich's shoulder popped and then burned before he clambered up and examined what was going on. Ulrich's palm was completely lost raw or bloody from grabbing such a rough surface and shoulder sore from the abrupt stop. He observed the fray below him.

Juno was somehow on her feet and doing whatever she could to her almost superhuman strength to keep the possessed away. A kick here and there along with punches started to slow as the deep gash on the back of her head started to take its toll. Eventually Juno was surrounded by the ring of possessed…except for the pathway. Who was at the pathway?

Unfortunately, Ulrich could tell right away. It was Mr. Shocking…with handkerchief soaked in what looked like water. Juno might have been able to take him alone, close to concussion or not, but with all of the school against her?

Two seniors grabbed her arms, Ulrich recognized them from the soccer field when Juno had kicked the ball into the seniors nose, and pulled her down to her knees. Mr. Shocking grabbed her neck. Ulrich was sure he was going to hear a snap. Juno turned her head, more afraid of the handkerchief than the risk of a broken neck. She struggles violently. Mr. Shocking frowned, and Ulrich could barely make out the Xana symbol flashing before Mr. Shocking covered Juno's mouth and nose with the cloth. Juno screamed and tried to get away from Mr. Shocking and the seniors. Soon enough though, Juno started to move less and less as the chloroform soaked on the cloth got into her system.

_Oh, God…Not good_ Ulrich panicked. What was he supposed to do? What? Ulrich lost his balance.

Ulrich fell into the arms of a Junior who had been expecting him to drop. As fast as he had fallen he was pinned to the ground next to Juno. This time he knew she wasn't conscious. Ulrich kicked his legs wildly, trying to connect to anything and was rewarded as the knee of the possessed keeping him down crumpled in on itself. He rolled over fought as much as he could, but was only rewarded with stars as his vision blacked for a second from a punch.

Ulrich was pinned again. He could only watch as Juno was forced onto her knees. Someone ripped their sweatshirt to shreds and tied her hands together. Mr. Shocking grabbed a glinting object from the hands of another, grabbed a fistful of Juno's hair and yanked her head back exposing her throat. Ulrich heard a weak groan. Juno was slightly conscious. Mr. Shocking held Juno's own knife to her throat.

_Juno's mind was a whirlwind of confusion: sounds and colors not making sense. Nothing she tried would let her move. Through closed eyes she saw light filter past her eyelids. Someone moved her, but to what position she did not know. Memory's plagued Juno's mind, memories she could see, memories that were new. Juno saw a teenage girl dressed in red with light teal hair, a boy standing next to her with platinum blonde hair and dressed in violet and adorned with gold jewelry. Juno tried to talk but her tongue felt like cotton in her mouth. All she managed was a soft groan._

Ulrich coughed before shouting as loud as he could. "Juno! Juno! Help!"

"_Angel! Angel! Help!"_

Juno's eyes opened then narrowed. She slammed herself back against Mr. Shocking, rolling over her shoulder and onto the now flattened teacher in a crouch. He growled but Juno took no notice. It was like something had snapped inside of her. One of the seniors that had held Juno down ran at her. Juno pushed off of Mr. Shocking with only the power of her legs and back flipped away. That alone was impressive to Ulrich. But within the next second he took that back.

Ulrich smelled an acidic smoke like cloth was burning. He looked around but he didn't see anything with an open flame. He glanced over to Juno's area and did a double-take. Ulrich noticed Juno was sending off rays of actual _heat!_

Juno turned her back on him and he found where the smoke was coming from. The bonds wrapped around her wrists were starting to burn, starting with a few embers before completely disintegrating into ash. Juno's hands were free.

Four feet in front of them, the possessed Mr. Shocking rose to his feet. In an odd morphed voice he spoke.

"You can't escape. You will be destroyed."

"Not this time." Juno's voice was _layered_ with power. "Not ever" The entire group of possessed still standing charged. It was different from all the other times, the circle, the random attacks, this time they all had a single, solitary goal.

Kill Juno Lea.

O-o-O-o-O

"Odd, there's a rout just around that ledge. You may be able to avoid William." Odd and Aelita sprinted around the corner, dodging blows of energy from the giant buster sword. They reached a dead end.

"Jeremie, you said there was a way to the tower here!" Aelita shouted activating her crystalline pink wings again. They were close to panicking. Well, Aelita was, Odd was being normal and acting as if he had the routine down.

"There is-there was supposed to be!" Aelita searched up and down the clear blue wall, as if an answer would come…and one did.

"Jeremie, I think I found something."

"Yes? What did you find?" came a hurried reply.

Aelita traced an indent on the ice wall. It was not large, only about s wide as a pencil, but it had a symbol. It was an arrow, pointing to her left. She followed it, finding another, and yet another before stopping. The tower was on the other side of the wall.

O-o-O-o-O

Juno started to speak. "Rufen weiter die Glut von Hölle und aller Zerstörung," The words were laced with more than just a angered vow, it had to be more. The more the black haired girl spoke, the more determined her voice rose. With her side to Ulrich, he could see her eyes…her eyes-they were bright, emerald green instead of the original violet. It reminded him of something…but what…

_Just remember the different pictures music has_

_Once just brass and woodwind just making flowers_

_A meadow of emerald with violets_

_Every piece composed takes hours_

"Flügel von Flamme ausbrechen von meine Seele," Ulrich didn't know what his class mate was speaking, what language had arisen from this person he barely knew. All Ulrich heard was a language that sounded familiar. The rough tongue of the speech was…reminiscent.

"und lassen es brennen!" The next five words were a mass of supreme and utter power.

"Destruktiven Kunst!" Juno bellowed. Something glowed on her hands drawing Ulrich's eyes to it.

"Fünfzehn!" The light rose to an even higher level in brightness, starting to blind the confused youth. Juno held up her left hand, open palmed with her fingers together and pointing to the sky. She extended only two fingers on her right hand, the middle finger and the index finger, and placed them just above the place Juno's left hand melted into her wrist. Embers flew up around her, casting a red light on her inky hair.

_A pattern, a twist, some lyrics or rests,_

_Each one paints a wondrous picture of sound._

_Sometimes music morphs from easy red to darkening black_

_Nothing stays the same forever in music, it turns around_

"Hasse's Feuer!" There was something close to an explosion of heat. A shot of red fire erupted from Juno's palm and started to burn everything away. The possessed ducked and were only mildly harmed; hurt enough to go down, but not be burned to death. Juno should have stopped there. But the blast was powerful enough to force the small A.I backwards and into Ulrich. If Juno had been in control since the chloroform, it was lost now. Ulrich could just barely see a symbol on Juno's hands.

Juno turned to the trees and drew her right hand back and opened her hand the rest of the way. Both of her hands turned inward as she drew both her hands towards her. In what seemed like a shove, a wall of flame passed from her hands and burned everything in its path…including the forest.

Juno's rage hadn't ended yet. In one spin she turned toward the school. In the middle of the spin Ulrich saw something around her neck. It was a ring on a chain. Normally, Ulrich would have passed it off as a necklace, but whether it was a trick of light or an actual reality, the ring glowed a piercing sapphire.

_At least three of you people reading this know music,_

_Remember what consists and makes music be._

_Like a clear rounding ring of different time signatures_

_Understand common time and the one less than that beat_

Juno raised her left and flicked her wrist. The school was ablaze. It was a continuous stream of fire from small hands. Destruction had broken loose, havoc was everywhere. Ulrich could no longer doubt something had happened. Perhaps Xana's smoke had gotten into her and laid dormant until this moment…but why, he wondered, didn't the possessed have such wild strengths?

Suddenly Ulrich saw Juno's fingers start to flex, to try to cut off the surge of fire. Her dark expression turned to a more panicked stage, as finally her fists closed and the fire was shut off. Juno faced Ulrich, a mix of sadness and pain mixed for an expression. She saw something close to an unconscious connect the dots in Ulrich's eyes. Juno doubted he knew, but…

Juno collapsed. The insane strength had left her in front of a blazing school, a confused classmate, and on a field of burned grass.

The only relief Ulrich saw was a wall of white light waiting to envelope them as the present turned to past.

O-o-O-o-O

Juno opened her eyes. Back in the nurse's office? She could feel her black silk pajamas rubbing against her skin. Ah, a return to the past…

Juno rocked foreword into an upright position. She remembered the attack…she has lost it, hadn't she? Her control had been next to zero! Juno had nearly killed a person she had to protect-

Juno lifted her hands. There it was, faint, but still there. The five lined spiral. It was white against her already pale skin. It was easily hid, but still…should one person…should a single person see it…

And Ulrich…

O-o-O-o-O

_The warrior knew at returned past_

_The person who was hidden at last_

_A line of simple clues_

_That he thought he knew_

_But at the end his answer had passed_

O-o-O-o-O

_Wow this is late._

_I have no excuses except that finding the translation to what I wanted to say fell through every time.  
_

_NEW POLL!! LOOK AT THE POLE!! WHAT LANGUAGE DID JUNO SPEAK IN?? And what up with the weird poem at the end? WHAT TYPE OF POEM IS IT??_

_Come on, get to it!_

_**REVIEW**_


	11. Awaken to the Reality

_Hi!! Wow, it's been a while!_

_Yes, i know this is like BARRY THE CHOPPER from Full Metal Alchemist decided it was its next victim, but...well, you know..._

_Disclaimer-I don't own Code Lyoko. Never will.  
_

_**Narrator POV**_

Juno should have known that the second she woke up the nurse would arrive. Needless to say, after scolding herself on her carelessness and stupidity (she had _snapped_, for god's sake!) and getting dressed, Yolande sauntered in with a thermometer. Juno, still angry with herself and her careless decision was not in the best of moods. The nurse immediately ordered Juno to open her mouth.

"Just to make sure you aren't running a fever now. You weren't running a fever yesterday, but school policy states it needs your temperature taken." Juno separated her lips and accepted the digital thermometer. She waited impatiently as Yolande paced the room. Juno was thinking over what had happened…the chloroform, the incantation (whatever language it was in), how Ulrich had almost figured it out…How could she let that happen? That was carelessness. Pure carelessness!

After about a minute (or maybe two, or four, or fifty. Juno was _really_ wanting to leave), the nurse walked over a plucked the tan digital thermometer from Juno's mouth and frowned.

"212 degrees?" Juno blanched. "No, that cannot be right." Juno relaxed slightly. _Come on, get your temper into check!_

"Okay, one more time Juno." Juno opened her mouth and waited. The temperature came back as 99.8 degrees. With a sigh close to relief, Juno allowed the stern control over her temper to loosen. "Juno, does your temperature usually run high or low?"

"High. Usually high. This is normal." The nurse raised her eyebrows, but nodded. "Is there something wrong with that?" Yolande shook her head.

"Some people's temperature runs higher or lower. My daughter's temperature actually runs a little low, at about 97. Being a higher temperature could be expected. I'll just have to write it down for future notice." Juno swallowed. "Oh relax, it means that if you actually land upon 98.6, you are below temperature."

"I didn't swallow for that reason, I'm trying to clear my throat." At that, the nurse's eyebrows rose and her mouth made a small O. _Ah,_ Yolande thought, _I completely forgot. She must be parched._

(-)-(-)-(-)

"Hey, Juno!" Herve desperately tried to get her attention. Juno continued to walk down the hall to the lunch cafeteria, brushing off questions pertaining to her former unconsciousness. Herve ran towards her. Juno lifted her arm so her forearm was pointing at the ceiling and Herve close-lined himself.

"Ow...Juno, that hurt!" He wailed, trying yet again to get her attention. Juno walked on, hands in fists. To anyone, it would seem that she was looking for a fight or _daring_ someone to fight her. For Juno…Juno simply wanted the brand marks that had marked her once smooth skin to be hidden. People didn't dare come up to her.

Juno finally managed to get to the cafeteria and get in line. Her appetite was nonexistent, but she decided to eat anyway. Juno slid her tray down the counter of food before coming to the fruit section. This area was layered in levels, from berries at the bottom, to apples on top. The height of the counter was about a quarter of a foot over Juno's head. She raised a hand to select an apple when suddenly a plate came over her vision. On the plate was a sliced apple.

"Ah, now Juno," a teasing woman's voice carried over the bustle of the cafeteria. "Here is your apple."

"Excuse me?"

"Ah, come on, Juno," the lady stepped to the side of the counter becoming visible. She was a short and stout woman, slightly on the heavy side. Despite this, she had a springy step and a light laugh. The length of her hair was unknown, as it was pulled into a tight sandy blonde bun at the back of her head. Her skin was tan, her eyes hazel, and a smile that could lift Juno's mood significantly. The name tag had the name Trisha written in bold letters.

"I guess you really follow the saying 'an apple a day keeps the doctor away'" Trisha waved a hand as if she could pass the conversation to the wind. "Your apple, Juno?" Juno took the apple from the strange lady.

"Um…thank you."

"Anytime Juno! In any case, go sit!" Juno turned and raised her eyebrows. Strange as Trisha may be, Juno still felt attracted to her as a nice person. Juno started to walk to her usual table and sat down.

(-)-(-)-(-)

"Come on you guys, she really saved my life out there." Ulrich whispered, glancing in Juno's direction. Aelita and Odd shrugged, neither caring what the decision was in the first place. Jeremie was strictly against it.

"Ulrich, she's a freak! Look at her-" The group gave sideways glances. Juno, for once, didn't notice. Juno was doing a rather odd thing at the moment—looking at her palms. And glaring sadly, as if she could make whatever happened to rest with her hands would vanish.

"Look, she just woke up after being unconscious. I mean, during the Xana attack, she got up, avoided being poisoned, got rid of Xana's smoky stuff, and then saved Odd's life. And mine." Jeremie was at a loss for words. Denying any further would lead to uproar yet pride…always pride…

"Hey Juno," Ulrich stood up, ignoring Jeremie's momentary indecision. "Come sit with us." He motioned at the extra seat. Juno looked at the seat and then out into space. Decisions, decisions…_what the heck. What's the worst that could happen?_

The plastic tray rattled against the blue plate as Juno set her tray down once again.

"So, Juno…" Aelita felt at a loss of words. "Um…like apples?" Juno nodded, keeping her hands in her lap. Ulrich studied her. Juno seemed subdued…either by intimidation or by something he could not name.

"Where did you go to school before Kadic?" Odd asked, picking up on the hint.

"I went to an academy in…" Juno thought for a few seconds. "England." Far enough away that people would not know any schools, yet close enough not to cause questions.

"Oh! So you can speak in two languages?" Ulrich proceeded. Juno mentally slapped herself. Duh! England speaks differently than France! How foolish.

"Not very well…" She thought hard. "It was…a school for French transfer students." Juno's fingers closed around an apple slice.

"But you're familiar with the language."

"True, but not really…" Juno left her sentence unfinished, an uncomfortable silence following. Odd shifted in his seat before holding his fork like a shovel and scooping up large portions of food.

" Um... 'Uno, wy 'id yuh 'aint 'ether'ay?" Odd pushed out through a mouth of food. He attempted to swallow and repeat the question, cheeks bulging.

"I don't know why I fell unconscious. I'm pretty sure it was a low fever." The table looked at her, eyebrows raised; mouths open (save Odd, who had finally swallowed). Juno pushed herself further back into her chair as if to avoid contact. She _hated_ so many eyes on her. "What?" she asked, voice taking a curious tone.

"I can't believe you understood that." Jeremie responded. The other warriors nodded in agreement.

"It's not that hard…" Odd laughed at this. He thought it was hilarious!

"Nobody can understand me with my mouth full" Juno shrugged.

"Do you like Kadic?" Jeremie inquired.

"Ano…sure, I gue—" she was cut off. Suddenly they bombarded her with questions. Over and over.

"Where did you live before that?"

"Do you have any siblings?"

"Is your hair actually that color naturally?"

"What's your family like?"

Juno stood. Her chair rocked back and rammed into the one behind her. Juno's flat palms splayed over the table top as strait arms supported her upper body. Her upper body hung over the table, her face showed disgust, and her braid draped over her shoulder.

"Quit pushing into my personal life. Che!" She cursed before leaving behind her tray, the apple, and shocked warriors behind.

"Did we just—ouch…" Odd voiced. They all nodded, but Jeremie grinned. He leaned back, smile complacent. He spoke.

"And I did nothing to scare her off."

(-)-(-)-(-)

_**Juno POV**_

I had lost it again…and cursed. I think. What had I said? Che? What kind of curse is that?

I shook my head. My room swayed and twisted. I mentally slapped myself to reality. Now what do I do? I studied my palms once again. The thin brand mark wasn't fading. That stupid five line spiral wasn't going away. Ever since I had uttered those stupid flame laden words…

_Rufen weiter die Glut von Hölle und aller Zerstörung, Flügel von Flamme ausbrechen von meine Seele und lassen es brennen! Destruktiven Kunst fünfzehn, hasse's Feuer!_

What did that mean…?

_Call forth the embers of Hell and all destruction, wings of flame erupt from my soul and let it burn! Destructive art fifteen, Hate's Fire!_

Yet again, translated but still mystery. Call forth the embers of Hell? All destruction? Did I desire another's pain that badly? Wings of flame erupt from my soul…This sounds like it's feeding from me, like it is taking my soul. Destructive art fifteen. Did that mean there were more of these, these 'destructive arts'? Did they have names similar to Hate's Fire? How in the world did I translate this without my computer? **What language is this?**

German.

'_Great, now I know that'_ she thought sarcastically_._

Che?

Japanese. Meaning…well, let's not get specific.

How could I do this? How do I _do_ this? How do I deal with this?

(-)-(-)-(-)

"Lea, you have practice in fifteen minutes!" I turned her head towards Jim. "Remember, you have to go to enough practices before you can play." He reminded. Yet again, I found something I didn't know. I nodded and walked to the locker room. There I found Emily, already changed and closing her locker. She looked at me with studying earthy eyes.

"I don't know what Jim sees in you." It was short, quick, to the point, and it stung. I mentally winced and turned to my own locker. "It took me two years of convincing Jim to put me on the boy's team because there isn't a girl's team. Two years! And now you can just walk in and automatically get a spot?"

I started to laugh. Not a long drawn out bark of hysteria, but silent.

"What? What is so funny?" She demanded, coming to me with anger burning.

"I never wanted to be on the soccer team. In fact, I was forced. So trust me. I will stay out of your way and let you do whatever you do during soccer season." Emily's eyes hardened with resolve. She walked towards the door with dignity.

"Fine then. Just don't let your 'poor me' emotions get to you today. Or ever." She flashed a smile. "The team needs it."

(-)-(-)-(-)

_**Narrator POV**_

Ulrich collapsed on his bed, completely drained of energy. Jim really ran a rough practice…of running. They barely did any skills. They just ran up and down the field. With soccer balls, without soccer balls, dribbling, shuffling, sprinting…Ulrich closed his eyes. The only person to keep up any sort of pace was of course, Juno. Front of the line and sprinting faster than most of us could believe.

Ulrich rolled over onto his stomach, wet hair from his shower glued to his forehead. Odd opened and shut the door to their room and repeated Ulrich's action of collapsing on the bed. Odd's hair, yet to be styled with gel, hung down in a wave.

"Ulrich, Yumi's coming back tomorrow, right?" Odd asked, voice muffled by his pillow. Ulrich started to turn once again.

"Yeah, she-umph!!" Ulrich landed on the floor rather painfully. "Called me." He finished. He propped himself up on his elbows.

"Hey, Odd, you know that riddle?" Odd nodded silently. "Have you started to work on that yet?

"Yes—I mean no—well, sorta. Why?"

"For—for some reason, yesterday during the attack…it was going through my head. Particularly...

_Just remember the different pictures music has_

_Once just brass and woodwind just making flowers_

_A meadow of emerald with violets_

_Every piece composed takes hours_

_-_

_A pattern, a twist, some lyrics or rests,_

_Each one paints a wondrous picture of sound._

_Sometimes music morphs from easy red to darkening black_

_Nothing stays the same forever in music, it turns around_

_-_

_At least three of you people reading this know music,_

_Remember what consists and makes music be._

_Like a clear rounding ring of different time signatures_

_Understand common time and the one less than that beat_

He shook his head. Maybe…just—he didn't want his suspicions to be in vain. No, it couldn't be right. That had to be a side effect of Xana's smoke. Maybe—maybe her will power was strong enough to withstand possession. Or she had gotten a small dose of Xana's vapor but it hadn't been enough to take her over completely. Or, maybe she was—

"Ulrich, did you hit your head or something? Come back to reality!"

"Sorry, just…thinking."

(-)-(-)-(-)

"Juno, your ring, please." Juno pulled the jade ring from her hair and handed it to Jim. She hadn't used it against anyone, but Jim figured that it was the final spar of the class and she was a finalist. It was afterschool the next day. The day Yumi was coming back. Ulrich would have met her at the airport, but a certain martial arts class surfaced on his schedule. And right along with the class was Juno, who he was currently going to fight.

Both teens stepped inside the large and white circle. There was Ulrich, ready in his normal gym clothes, and Juno, in loose black pants and tank top. They bowed and waited for the command.

"Ready, fight!"

Ulrich spun his leg out to kick Juno's knee, but failed as Juno jumped a second before he would hit her. Ulrich knocked her down from the air with a palm in her stomach, only to have his arm caught. Juno twisted and threw Ulrich over her shoulder. Ulrich winced. This was a different fighting style than he had observed before.

Ulrich rolled to his feet and charged Juno. She held her ground, grappling against him. Suddenly, she gave ways and rolled to her back from standing position. A surprised Ulrich lurched forward as well. Ulrich found Juno's feet on his abdomen and was launched backwards again. He landed next to the circle's line, but not out of it. That was a dirty trick. A sacrifice!

He rolled to the left and stood, throwing himself foreword in attempt to punch. Juno sidestepped and Ulrich stumbled and received an elbow on his back. He fell to a crouch that he used to his advantage. Ulrich elbowed Juno's knees. Juno gasped and her joints bent. With her legs in this relaxed state, she forward rolled and ended near the edge of the mat. Ulrich didn't go at her. Juno instead advanced to the center. Ulrich watched her but she didn't make a move to attack. He watched and watched…Ulrich recovered from this reverie and aimed a kick for her side. It hit. Some of Juno's breath escaped and she curled in—and around Ulrich's leg. Juno wouldn't let go.

She smiled. Juno moved her leg foreword and leaned to the side. They both fell. Ulrich ended up beneath Juno, arms pinned by her legs, one hand on his chest and one on the underside of his chin and staring into the mixed colored violet and emerald eyes of Juno.

"Pinned." It was short. What happened? He replayed the fight in his mind. Actually, Juno had never once come at him. She had used _himself_ against him. Overbalance, pushing, momentum, she was using him!

A bright laugh echoed across the gym followed by a voice; "so now Ulrich can be beaten by two girls in gym!" Ulrich turned his head. There, at the entrance of the gym, was Yumi. She smiled, Juno stood. Ulrich clambered to his feet and walked towards Yumi. Aelita, Odd, and Jeremie came to view behind her. Aelita turned her head.

"Who else can beat Ulrich?" Her eyebrows raised a centimeter as Juno rubbed her neck; Juno walked to the locker room where they stood. "I should have guessed. Who else but Juno?" Yumi hugged Ulrich, smile broad and radiating joy.

Ulrich studied her. She was much happier than before. Tears didn't stain her cheeks and her eyes weren't puffy and red.

"Ha! Ulrich was beaten by another girl! You're really loosing your touch buddy!" Odd teased. Ulrich scowled, but was knocked on the head by Yumi.

"Nani? Ulrich can't admit defeat?" The group stared at her. Juno shook her head.

"Yumi, they don't know Japanese." Juno reminded her. "Nani means what." She translated. Her gait paused a bit but she continued to walk. _'How did I know that? German, Japanese…next will come something absurd like Russian!'_

"Wait!" Jeremie called after her. Juno paused, emeralds flashing in her skull. "How did you know?" Juno shrugged and walked on.

"Ignore her." Yumi said. "You guys have to see what we brought from Japan! It is ooini!" Laughter followed.

"Like your vocabulary. If you keep speaking Japanese we'll go crazy." Odd pestered.

"Fine," Yumi smiled. "You know my dad's samurai armor and his katana? My dad is crazy about stuff like that…"

(-)-(-)-(-)

_**Juno POV**_

I awoke in the middle of the night. Something was wrong. I felt my ring. It was above room temperature, but that was from being on my body for a few hours. I glanced at her alarm clock. Two A.M. What was wrong with me?

Then I noticed. I raised two trembling fingers and felt my cheek. They were wet. Then flashes of a dream—a reality came crashing upon me.

_I started to speak unknown words—forming in my mouth. I didn't know what they meant, it just came out. "__Rufen weiter die Glut von Hölle und aller Zerstörung, Flügel von Flamme ausbrechen von meine Seele und lassen es brennen! Destruktiven Kunst fünfzehn, hasse's Feuer!" My eyes twinged, there was fire—so much fire—but it never burned me. I never seemed to hurt, even as it licked at palms palms with fiery hate. Suddenly my palms burst into pain, making me cry out, but I was unable to stop it._

_Hand movements—what were they? A flick of her wrist, two fingers behind her hand, a shove—it hurt! Stop! I must stop! Pain! Anger! Hate! Protect—burn!_

_Passion—bloodlust! Love—distain! Stop! Stop!_

_My vocal cords wouldn't respond. Everything was on fire. Trees, school, people, grass—the air—oxygen—hydrogen—Stop!_

A flash and it was over. There was more—I knew there was more. But it wouldn't come. I wouldn't let it come. It won't! I won't let it!

My resolve was strong. I pushed tired limbs out of bed and opened the window, a cold breeze rushing past my ears. My hair was down. It had grown rapidly since I had come to earth. It was almost to the small of my back, and was whipping around me from the air outside. I reached my hands out and up, fingers closing on the ledge of the roof. With my feet on the windowsill I pulled myself on the tiled roof.

The rooftop was windy and the tiles were cool underneath me as I stood. I walked sideways, uneven bumps beneath my feet. Everyone was asleep. No girl or boy would hear me. There, a few feet away from my own window, I stood.

There was another gust. The wind was strong tonight. It instantly dried my tears and pushed back others. My hair ran free. My bangs were down to my chin now, framing my face. I felt free! It was just me, alone on this roof! Ignoring curfew, ignoring Jim, ignoring my dream. What did a dream have to me? How could a dream bind me to pain and agony? I might not be immortal or impervious to destruction, but I could try. And I will resist. Resistance is key!

Sparks glistened on my fingertips at this. I snapped my fingers, a flame no bigger than what a lighter could produce flickered and was then put out by the breath of air. Strange power was at my fingertips…but it had been there the entire time. What had I called it before? Kala. A name for fire. But the wrong language, the wrong saying. Hasse's feure was not right as well. It was nameless, that is what I concluded. And It would stay that way. Until I found out what it really was, what this energy actually came out to be. Despite this, I felt relaxed about this. I didn't panic at the ability to produce fire. Why should I? It was a part of me!

I laughed. For the first time since I had come to earth everything felt alright. Everything felt as it should. Everything, while weird, wrong, abnormal, and following the plot of a sci-fi movie carefully, was how my life was, is, and will be.

Instantly, on this rooftop where the world didn't know I resided, where the world couldn't scorn me for black hair, for violet eyes, for being reclusive, for being different! I forgot my fear, I forgot my pain, I forgot my life binding responsibility. I was happy. Here on this rooftop where the world could not see me.

I was happy.

(-)-(-)-(-)

_Peace out people! That was only a little below 9 pages if it was Times New Roman font and size twelve. Not bad. **I HAVE A POLL!!!!!!! ANSWER THE POLE!!!!!!!!!! I'll write when the POLL!!!!!!! has been answered to by at least one person!!!!!**_

_Evil rant over_

_Peace, people. And don't let the election stress you guys out!  
_


	12. Close Then Far Before You're In the Dark

_Disclaimer: I don't own Code Lyoko. Um…sorry Jeremie. You're probably overjoyed the actual story line isn't like this_

_**Try to follow the music reference!**_

(o)o(o)o(o)

Juno sat in the cafeteria one morning alone as usual. No, scratch that. As _always_. Yet, today was indeed, slightly different. Today, she, Juno Lea, was drinking pure, black, and bitter coffee with her sliced apple that Trisha so happily handed to her. And she loved every sip. There must be something, Juno decided while sipping the bitter liquid, that was different and amazing about this drink. There was something in the dark auburn color that was a magic of its own. The coffee's bitter taste sparked something and the caffeine wasn't too bad either.

Juno shook her head to tumble her thoughts into something a little more intelligent. The truth simply happened to be that Juno was in no way, shape, or form a morning person despite what her peers and five a.m. wake-up habits suggested. Hence, the wonderful black coffee. And quite good it was, compared to that awful substance called 'tea' which Juno found appalling (it was made out of _leaves _for God's sake!) So much for her cover story of having gone to a school in England. Not one of her better alibis.

Juno knew it was time to leave at around six thirty when other kids started to filter into the hall. She and her (by now) damp hair would have to be dragged up to her room to avoid human contact. Unfortunately, while passing through the double doors to get to the outside she came face-to-face with a not-too-incredibly happy Jeremie.

"What are you looking at?" he challenged, or more like grumbled. Juno shook her head and chose not to respond, opting to sidestep him in (almost) inhuman speed. Jeremie glared at the spot that Juno had been in last before continuing on. He sat at the normal table and was soon joined by Aelita who sat down next to her un-admitted crush. The younger girl studied his face.

"Jeremie, you don't look very good." Jeremie nodded. "Don't you want to eat something?" The blond boy shook his head in response.

"Are you sure? At least eat an apple—you know, simple sugars, monosaccharide's, easily burned, easy energy…" she stopped at Jeremie's glare. Jeremie's brown eyes glinted before he gave up and put his head on the table.

"I'm fine—really. I'm just tired. I've been working on a few codes, getting ready for the new Skid, and trying to find out where that annoying A.I is going." He growled and his heart rate rose with pinpointed disdain for the cocky and altogether quite arrogant A.I.

"Oh, don't say that about her. She means well, in a way. You would be giving a cold shoulder too if you had no idea who you were." Aelita explained in a calming voice. Try as she might (which was quite a lot), Aelita could not persuade Jeremie that Aisu meant well. _Or for that matter_, she thought while thinking of the other cold and diamond hearted girl, _Juno_.

"Give up Aelita." Aelita sighed at her crush's stubborn will.

"Fine, fine. Whatever you want." She frowned disapprovingly at Jeremie. "Are you at least going to drink something? Because you haven't been eating very well. Actually, you haven't eaten much since Jim started the cross country unit two weeks ago…" Jeremie took a long glare at Aelita and she decided to be quiet.

(o)o(o)o(o)

Juno sat with another sheet of song lyrics. _Her_ song lyrics. For some reason she just had trouble with this particular part in the lyrics. Juno worked and worked but the creative and inventive part of her mind seemed to have gone AWOL and, well, she was not too happy. With this much trouble the song wasn't even worth it. Juno sighed and leaned back in her desk.

Juno could feel her temperature rising from frustration and wondered briefly if she should remove her hands from the paper lying innocently in front of her in the case it would start to burn…last night she had woken up to a few smoldering holes in her pajamas from her temperature's increase. That needed to be aired out and tossed before the fire alarm had been alerted of the wisps of smoke. It had scared Juno so much when she smelled smoke and realized it was _her_, or rather, her clothing. She gently lifted her hands.

"_Why, hello Aisu-hime. Back from drumming, or playing guitar, oh musical genious? How many instruments can you play now?"_

"_Drumming, four, and why do you call me Aisu-hime, Mira?"_

"_Well, considering your name in Japanese literally means 'ice' and since you have been cold to everyone so far, 'ice princess' seems to fit."_

"_You are insane, my ice suited friend. Just because I made Blazen a land of fire and your own sector could be called the North Pole. Besides" Juno heard her voice say offhand. "My element is fire, Aisu-Kukuou."_

"_Ice King," Mira chuckled. "Way to throw an insult, Angel. Oh, Malik would be put to shame."_

"_Oh yes, the 'Kukuou of sarcasm'. Do you not 'love' our Sahara obsessed brother? "_

"_Oh yes…"there was truth in Mira's own words. "When you're on missions Angel, he's the best friend I could ask for."_

"_Better than me." Regret laced her words._

"_Oh, but there can only be one of you, Hogosha Tenshi."_

"'_Guardian Angel? If you say so, my friend."_

Juno hurdled back to reality with the slam of a door. She glanced up and saw Yumi skirting around chairs and desks while walking to their lab table. When the Japanese warrior plunked down in her seat and organized her books she realized that Juno had barely acknowledged her presence. Deciding that taking a peak over her shoulder wouldn't hurt, Yumi tipped her chin up and leaned a bit over with the excuse of reaching for her binder.

"If you wanted to see what I was writing you could have simply asked." Yumi grinned sheepishly as the violet eyed girl lifted her gaze to meet Yumi's dark eyes. "Nice to see you're back. How was Japan?"

Yumi shrugged. "It was…sad for the first week or so. The second week I saw the rest of my family and it helped. I hadn't seen my cousin in eleven years and I saw her three days ago. Seeing my family…was amazing. We just pushed and pulled each other from depression." Juno nodded _although_, she thought with regret, _I can't really say the same_.

"Your family sounds nice." Juno commented, her mouth a neutral line of longing she could only hope Yumi couldn't see. Yumi tried to process what the small violet eyed girl's expression meant before realizing. _She never had a family?_

"Yeah…they're amazing." Yumi took another peek over Juno's shoulder. "What _are_ you writing?" Without saying a word Juno slid the bright white paper over and into her view. Yumi stared at the paper in awe and wonder that Juno would give it up so easily.

"Well…" Juno commented, noticing the lack of movement in Yumi's earthy oriental eyes. Yumi shrugged and then began to read down the page.

_Listen when I say I cannot protect you_

_You are my life and I cannot hurt you_

_Your pain brings my end_

_Your torn heart needs to mend_

_I must see you even…tually_

"And then I got stuck…This is not a good idea anyway. I'm just going to start over." Yumi looked up in surprise. She had thought they were pretty good, not amazing, but not terrible. _It's not my business what she writes and what she doesn't like _Yumi decided, and didn't bring up the discussion further.

"Is there a tune to that?" She asked. Juno shrugged and hummed a bit of it. As far as Yumi could tell it was only the top line. _F#, F#, F#, F#, G, G, F#, E, F#, F#_, D. Yumi followed each not with the syllable. It was beautiful—such an innocent tune though, to hard lyrics.

Yumi thought about the pattern a bit before she realized that everything Juno was humming was above middle C. Once Juno was finished with the flowing pattern, she spoke up.

"You're a soprano?" Juno's cheeks showed barely a hint of pink as she blushed from her slip. _Observant, are you not?_

"I'm supposed to be an alto. I have a wide octave range." Yumi raised an eyebrow at this.

"Did you know choir auditions are tomorrow?" Juno looked up. "They're held a month into school…normally. I think the school band auditions got in the way…and then the play auditions. And then we can't forget about the chamber singers group auditions. Oh, and then the strings orchestra. So…altogether they were pushed back another four weeks. Into October. To now."

"And I should try out?" Why couldn't I just ask to try out for band or something?"

"Well…most people try out for two things…I'm going to try out for the choir. Maybe I'll get into chorus this year since I was choral last year. But if you want to try out for band, Ulrich and William are percussion. Go right ahead." _Quite the rant. Way to go idiot. That was really smart of me._ Juno had looked down at the paper.

"What choirs are there?" Despite what Yumi had thought, Juno was in fact interested. Something to do with her free time. Why not?

"Umm…well, there's the beginning choir, then coral, then chorus, then concert. Beginning is mostly eighth grade and freshman, coral is mostly sophomores and juniors, chorus is sophomores, juniors, and seniors who didn't get into the concert choir, and concert is usually really good juniors and seniors." Yumi took a breath. "I was in coral as a freshman so I hope to get into chorus."

"So you were advanced as a freshman and now you want to be in the chorus which is still advanced?" Yumi nodded. "I wonder where I'll be placed."

"So you'll try out?" Juno shrugged and nodded. Her violet eyes were a little harder than normal even with such a normal conversation.

_I did it again. I let myself get to close. I cannot let myself go. This is a mission, not a vacation._

(o)o(o)o(o)

"Listen up everybody!" the cafeteria during lunch remained loud and noisy, not even one child took heed in Jim's words. Jim almost swore before shouting again. "I said LISTEN!" the lunch hall fell silent.

"I wonder what he wants now." Ulrich commented from his table. A small glance around him showed people shrugging to their friends and an unperturbed Juno.

"Okay, now that I got your attention I have an announcement. Or two. First, the Halloween dance is in three weeks! Put it in your calendar. We are giving you enough time to get a costume. Everyone who uses a dormitory in here must go to the dance even if it is for only five minutes. The dress code—" there were several aw's from the crowd. "Is fairly loose…thanks to a certain _someone_."

"Ten bucks says it was Sissi." Jeremie nodded in agreement to Aelita's statement.

"Anyway, the dress code allows girls to dress up in costume as long as it isn't…umm…well, suggestive. Girls, only four inches of your midriff can be exposed. Your tops cannot be…too low. Skirts have to at least five inches from the knee." There were a few snorts from Sissi's table. "Boys almost have free reign. The only thing is that they must wear a shirt and pants."

"Wow. Lucky us. We get everyday clothes." Odd stated. A few people giggled a bit as Jim glared.

"The second announcement is that the freshman class will be running the three mile cross country course in gym class. Get ready for it. Eat a good meal and drink water before that period." There was a chorus of boos from the various tables. Jim glared one more time and then exited the room to get ready.

"Uh…Jeremie…are you going to eat anything now?" Aelita asked. Jeremie shook his head.

"I'm not hungry. I already told you."

"What do you mean, not hungry?" Odd exclaimed, faking astonishment. "How could a teenage boy not be _hungry_?" Jeremie glared and then stood. "Hey, wait. Where' ya goin'?"

"Jeremie, you haven't really eaten anything all week!" Despite the bitter truth in Aelita's words, Jeremie snorted and tried to change the topic.

"Well, her-royal-pain-in-the-neck is back to normal."

"Who? Sissi?" Odd asked. "Because there hasn't been any difference that I can tell."

"No, idiot. Juno." He whispered her name. Ulrich raised an eyebrow and then rolled his eyes. What was the rivalry?'

"I don't know…" Yumi explained her reasoning. "Today before math I was talking about Japan and my family and she had this look on her face…as if…as if…"

"As if..."Odd prompted, trying to get her to explain further. Everyone, including Jeremie, was staring expectantly at Yumi as if they all wanted a good tale.

"I don't really know how to say it. It was more like a feeling than something I can put into words."

"Can you try?" Aelita asked, curiosity taking hold.

"It was like it was envy or longing. Of me. And it wasn't for going to Japan."

"Let me guess, a longing to see a funeral! Ha! Fits her perfectly!" Jeremie snorted. Everyone glared at him. It was as if you could see arrows and blades suspended between both sides. If one said the wrong thing the other would attack.

"Hey! Let me finish. And _no, _it isn't for not having a funeral. I was talking about my family and how they helped me. It was almost like she never had it." Yumi breathed. "Like that was a gap."

"A gap of depression? Have you _seen _her? She wears black Yumi. More than you do at any rate." Everyone glared at Jeremie again. This time Juno included, as if she could hear all the way over there (which she could, in a sense. Juno had hear that last comment, as Jeremie had raised his voice a bit.) Juno smiled as in mock sympathy and gathered her laptop and bag to leave.

"No, Jeremie. I don't know what you have against her or why you hold it so important. But I don't think you understand what I just saw." Yumi had everyone's attention. "It seemed like she didn't know the feeling of someone being there for her. As if she _didn't have a family_."

The table stared in shock. No…family? That could not be possible. Juno must have had someone, even if they did not choose support her.

"And you call her insane. I can see why she keeps people away, why she's cold to everyone, why she feels like it's her responsibility to keep everyone safe. Nobody kept _her_ safe! Juno was alone!"

"You," Jeremie said, patting her hand sympathetically. "Are completely insane." Yumi frowned but didn't make a comeback. Aelita took this silence to her advantage.

"…So Jeremie, want to eat something yet?"

The warriors had no clue how close Yumi was.

(o)o(o)o(o)

Juno sat on a bench with her laptop during a free space two periods after lunch. It was in a nice wide open space where she could look left and see bout the length of a soccer field and look right to see the same distance. And most importantly, it was a length of space people rarely passed. _Except the freshman cross country today and the William clone. Wonderful. Well, 'William' is okay_.

Another person passed her, giving her a glance that clearly read 'what the hell is she doing?'. Juno glared in response and scampered away faster than he was running before. _At least he's gone until the next lap_. She took a sip of the orange juice she had brought and recounted what she had been thinking of earlier. Juno had counted Ulrich running two laps, leaving two left, Odd closely following, and Jeremie…Jeremie had just passed the two mark and not looking so good. Actually, he looked sick.

Juno glanced up as Ulrich and Odd passed her again. She could tell they were racing each other. It was a good competition as long as _someone_ would pay attention to their poor and slow friend. Juno snorted. _Who am I to meddle in affairs that I shouldn't care about?_

Juno returned to her laptop. There was just one more code she needed to set up before she updated the Skidd shield system. She started working and was about halfway through when five minutes later she saw the William clone look up out of the corner of her eye. The William clone turned his head and look down at the stretch of land to their left.

Juno saw Jeremie running. Or jogging. Or practically walking. His face was pale a he looked like he was sick. Jeremie's breathing was heavy and labored. Jeremie stopped walking for bit and leaned over, hands on his knees. _This doesn't look good._ Juno thought. She looked past Jeremie and saw Ulrich and Odd rounding the bend about to lap their friend. _They'll help him_. Suddenly Odd looked up from the ground, speeding up his stride, and shouted.

"Jeremie!" Juno looked back to where the blond stood. Had stood. _ Oh no…_ she remembered what she had heard at lunch.

"_Jeremie, you haven't really eaten anything all week!" _

"William, call 911!" Juno jumped off the bench, grabbing her fruit juice and started to sprint towards the computer genius now lay. _This is not good…_Juno kneeled down and put a hand on Jeremie's forehead. It was hot and fevered with hair matting it from sweat. His pulse was haywire and irregular and he muttered incoherently, eyes flicking right and left under shut lids.

He had been staying up later, hadn't he? He always had dark circles under his eyes. Jeremie wasn't eating much either. He was exhausting more energy than he was in taking…which could mean one thing.

"Come on Jeremie, drink this!" Yet he wouldn't. Jeremie wouldn't swallow the orange juice she had put to his mouth.

"Do you have a cell phone?" Ulrich and Odd ran up and began questioning her.

"no, I don't. I got William to call 911. The hospital is 10 minutes away normal time, but their driving and the fire department's driving will get them here in about six minutes."

"What do you think is wrong?" Odd asked, picking up her orange juice bottle.

"I think he's low on blood sugar. And.." _diabetes._ She finished in her mind, concern evenly shown in her eyes.

Juno saw another person round the bend. "Hey, what's wrong with him?" Emily yelled, still over a hundred yards away.

"Emily, get Jim. Get him now!" Juno shouted. Emily took one look at the blond, nodded, and started sprinting back the way she came. "Odd and Ulrich, you guys find a teacher, any teacher. William, try to find water or something cold. Bring his fever down." The two roommates ran toward the building at a nod and the clone wordlessly sprinted around the corner before returning in a few minutes with a bottle of chilled water. Juno unscrewed the lid and considered what to do. In a second's thought, she reached into her pocket and brought out the knife she carried and then grabbed for her t-shirt's black sleeve. Juno cut it off at the seam on her shoulder. Juno dumped a generous amount of water on the short bit of fabric and placed it on his head.

"William, can you do me a favor?" The clone nodded. "I need you to bring my laptop to my room so nobody knows what I'm doing. I cannot have the warriors knowing who I am." Juno handed 'William' her copper toned key.

"After everyone leaves?" he asked.

"Yeah, and do not say anything about this. Ulrich especially. He _will_ be able to connect me to Aisu and then realize we are one of the same." He nodded. "Much too many careless slip ups…"

"I understand. But know that Xana might take advantage of this. He's planning something…I can feel him plotting. What, I have yet to figure out."

"Thank you."

(o)o(o)o(o)

Jim and Emily arrived back first. Jim thought over Juno's theory and thought it was possible. Odd and Ulrich then returned with Mr. Shocking (he apparently yelled "Why does everything happen with and around Juno? And during a class!") Mr. Shocking and Jim tried in vain to get Jeremie to drink the juice Juno provided. They propped him up, poured a small amount of liquid in his mouth and even rubbed his trachea, yet Jeremie wouldn't swallow.

The ambulance arrived. They measured his blood sugar and found that it was twenty three. Juno was right. Low blood sugar. Mr. shocking and Jim made Juno go to the hospital with him for support. Try as she might, Juno couldn't get her teachers to understand that 'supporting' Jeremie would consist of getting Odd, Yumi, Ulrich, and especially, Aelita. Still, it was Juno who ended up next to the blond on the short trip to the hospital. Now, after several hours and doctors questioning Juno intently, Jeremie finally woke up. However, the first thing out of his mouth was…

"What are you doing here?" Juno looked up from the plastic covered chair where she was sitting. Jeremie's skin tone had taken to a pallor color despite the raspberry stain that lit his cheeks.

"What? No 'thank you Juno for trying to help me?' Not even 'I'm sorry for ignoring my body and making you _have_ to help me?' I expected as much. Now," Juno rubbed her hands together as if to rub off any dirt. "If you excuse me, I'm going back to school, considering you're awake and I was told I could leave once you did." The black haired 'angel' stood and turned as the door opened revealing a doctor with dark brown hair swept up so it was off his pale skinned forehead.

"Back to school?" Jeremie questioned.

"Yes, back to school. Where do you think you are?" Jeremie looked around.

"Oh."

"Yes, oh. Hello-" the man dressed dark blue scrubs looked at his chart. "Jeremie. I'm your doctor, Dr. Lennen. It appears to me that you collapsed when running cross country at school?" The doctor looked at Juno. She nodded.

"Yes."

"Okay, well Jeremie, we took some tests while you were unconscious and found that you have…" Dr. Lennen looked at his charts again… "Diabetes…" The doctor stopped talking. A flash of pain went through his eyes as he read that disgusting word.

Jeremie took a deep breath at the word. "Oh…" he finally decided to say.

"If it wasn't for Juno taking charge once you collapsed, your low blood sugar would have been much, much worse problem. For all we know, you could have been in a coma." Juno got up to leave and had almost exited the door when Dr. Lennen looked up. "Where are you going Juno?"

"School. I have a math test to make up." She easily lied. Dr. Lennen rolled his eyes.

"Fine, fine. Do you have a ride?" Juno shook her head.

"The school is ten minutes running distance. I can live." She exited the almost cold feeling steril building. She got a few looks from receptionists, nurses, patients, and the single janitor. People waiting in the lobby of the raised eyebrows and turned heads, yet Juno didn't care. All she wanted to do is get out.

Once outside she took a deep breath and started to run. She sprinted at a human pace in case there were people watching. It must look kind of odd to see a short girl in all black and missing a sleeve on a t-shirt running off on the sidewalk. Juno snorted at the doctor's concert for her _running_ back to school.

A car honked at her. She glared automatically before realizing that she hadn't had the time to give a proper stare of discontent. Juno shrugged this off. She passed buildings separated by long and dark alleyways and shops full of bright lights. Another person gave her an odd look. Her face darkened as he looked. _And to think that at this pace I won't even sweat_.

(o)o(o)o(o)

"So what's wrong?"

"Is Jeremie okay?"

"Will he be back soon?"

"When do we get to see him"

Juno was bombarded with questions as Odd, Aelita, Yumi, and Ulrich surrounded her once she arrived back at school. She began to feel frustrated and with this emotion came the burning green eyes that almost pained her.

"And how in the _world_ did you get back so fast if you just ran?"

"Fine. Jeremie has diabetes, yes, no probably not, I don't have the slightest clue, and it isn't that far of a run." She listed off before trying to go. Aelita grabbed her arm in a panicked way and Juno let her spin her around to face her.

"Dia-diabetes?" Juno nodded. In the most gentle manner possible, she shook the blue eyes tear fallen girl off her arms and touched her shoulders.

"He is going to be alright. It will take him a little getting used to, but he will not die. Trust me Aelita, he was determined when he opened his eyes." _I think_. Juno's eyes tried to send a comforting signal, yet her eyes remained the emerald hue. She desperately hoped that Aelita wasn't paying too much attention to realize the difference between violet and green. It appeared that she didn't yet it seemed that Ulrich was giving her weird looks. Juno closed her eyes and turned to hide the burning green.

"Talk to Jim later. He will know when you can visit." She walked off and raced to her dormitory in effort to get to her computer. She unlocked her door and found that the clone had slid the key under the space after he locked it again. Juno slipped it back into her pocket and saw he precious black laptop closed in standby mode in her desk. Juno thought back on the day.

_I should have noticed. I have to work harder now. I let something important like Jeremy's health slip under my sight. That was foolish._ Juno grabbed her computer and opened it. She typed in her password and the code process she had been working on popped up. Juno began to rewrite the coding process when she got interrupted yet again by a soft rapping on her door.

Juno stood and slid over to the door, unlocking it and opening it to reveal a rather dulled looking William clone.

"What's wrong?" she asked, pulling the clone inside.

"Jeremie's out and when I was looking at your computer a window when up. The super scan found a replika. I did not know if the scan would alert you again since I had seen the screen. Should you schedule a day to destroy it?" Juno sat on the light grey carpet and he followed suit, crossing his legs.

"I might want to. Maybe the day after Jeremie is let loose from the hospital." 'William' shook his head vigorously.

"No! You must do it as soon as possible!" Juno looked up undecided. She could either have Aelita power the craft without any outside help, have Ulrich or Yumi stay behind, or she herself stay behind…that last one wouldn't work. Their minds would automatically think 'Juno' when they heard her voice, not Aisu! And then what? Juno rubbed her temples with her fingers.

"How does tomorrow sound? I know that you do not usually work with me, but I need to know your opinion. Now, tomorrow, two days, a week…"

"Tomorrow seems like it would give the warriors time to recover from shock and for you to make a plan." The William clone stood and turned to the door. "And I trust you. Any other time you need help I am here for you to ask. I will aid you in any possible way. Make me your lieutenant 'General' Aisu." Juno frowned at the nickname.

"For some reason the army concept seems against me."

(o)o(o)o(o)

"Dad! I'm home! And I brought a few people!" Yumi shouted. Silence followed. "Dad?" Yumi looked behind her at the door. There was an array of notes on the back of the front door, a chore chart, reminders, and the one at the bottom of the list, an explanation. It was written is scrawled Japanese kanji. Yumi translated it in her head quickly.

_Yumi,_

_Your mother and I went out for a parent-teacher conference for Hiroki. We will return in two hours. Your friends are welcome to stay and see the sword as long as you do not touch it._

_We love you,_

_Dad_

"Okay, my parents won't be home for two hours. That gives us all the time we need to see the sword." Ulrich nodded and Aelita frowned.

"Can't we do this when Jeremie's back from the hospital?" the light pink haired girl asked. Yumi knew she was sad (Jeremie had been admitted that day, what was to be expected?), but the real motive behind this idea of finally letting everyone see what Yumi had brought back from Japan was to get her mind off of the pain. Yumi had promised a show, and that's what she would give them.

"Jeremie will be fine. I'll bring him over just as soon as he's out." Yumi turned and headed up the staircase. "About that sword…" She led the quad group of friends up the stairs and to her dad's 'study'.

Nothing was actually done in such a room except to display artifacts. There was the ever present samurai armor and the katana that Ulrich had used to save Yumi. To the right of it was a small necklace made from metal and leather cord. It was her own baby necklace, given to her from her own Ojiisan. Yumi held a bitter laugh. Where better to put the necklace? To the left of the samurai armor was a drawing on rice paper that spelled 'peace' in kanji.

Yumi frowned at that one. She knew its history of being the sole survivor of an artist's work during the second world war. 'Peace'. Nobody was at peace then and he was punished for wanting it by a group of angry people willing to do anything to have their ways. But there, in the back of the room and given a special place of honor next to the samurai armor, was the artifact Yumi had wanted the group to see.

It was a sword was made from black steel, sharp as a needle at the tip and with two edges. One edge was blunt and went straight down from the tip without even the slightest curve. It went until it reached the handle. The second curve was sharp and bent gracefully from the tip until it was parallel to the Handel. Then there was a six inch blunt edge between the curved edge and the blunt edge. At the end of the grip was a three ring chain of half-inch-width gold rings that attached to a long white cloth was tapered at the top where the rings connected it with the sword, and then increasing in width until it was about a foot wide. All together, the cloth was about as long as two yards.

"That's—you're kidding!" Odd blurted out. Yumi shook her head.

"No. This was the pride and joy of my grandfather's collection. He loved it…Dad loved it…_I_ love it." Yumi explained, her tone taking utter delight. She _loved_ these artifacts. She had been overjoyed when her father inherited the sword from his uncle. "This thing must weigh a ton."

"But…" Ulrich stammered.

"It's very old…although in very good condition, sharp even. I could probably pick this up and swing it on the concrete and there wouldn't be a dent…except for the concrete. It would still be able to cut me in half. This was crafted with the steel being folded over and over a lot of times…I can bet this could take a krab or another type of Xana's slaves."

"But…I can't believe it!" Aelita had wide eyes. The sword was beyond beautiful, and yet…it wasn't the beauty they were talking about. Or the lethalness.

What the four warriors were shocked with was not how cool of a sword it was, or how well made, crafted, or how the condition of the blade was. What they were all talking about was how it seemed to be the more beautiful replica of something.

Something they _all_ knew so well.

Something they all had seen before.

Something unexpected.

Something amazing.

Something such as…

Aisu's own magnificent and stunning sword.

(o)o(o)o(o)

_**I HAVE A POLL! CHECK IT OUT!!!**_

_That took forever! Sorry! I can't find the words to express what I see in my mind!_


	13. The Beginning

(o)(O)(o)

_Happy hello! It's been two months already!_

_I don't own Code Lyoko!_

_I do own this horribly late chapter!_

(o)(O)(o)

_Blurred movements of darkened shapes grew out of the shadowed navy walls. They advanced towards me. I could tell them apart from the geometric shapes of the sector. I turned and looked at the wall behind me. Solid. Not even a crack to blast apart. I looked up. One of the blue beams stretched above me, too far to reach without help._

"_Go on, Angel." A icy voice wormed its way into my ears, simple sound waves being taken by my eardrums to create such a chilling and terrifyingly evil voice. "Use what gave you your name." I looked up again and spun to the left, red hair with the occasional black streak flashing in the edges of my vision. _

_They were everywhere. Giant round spheres…tall spindled legs with flat disks on top, and cubes with skittering legs. Nothing like the straight and geometric shapes that made the sector. I glanced at the only human looking shadow. Beside it swam a shadowed shape of a flat creatures with a long twisting tale at the back and prongs protruding at the front. It looked like his first command, his best monster._

_Suddenly the pronged mouth grew red. A sphere of crimson was building and growing. I looked left. The spindled figures had paused to create their own glow and to the right the giant spheres had broken open. Everything glowed red. Crimson splashed onto the dark blue walls and illuminated the cruel face of the human looking figure._

_Blond hair waved down into steely gray eyes in uneven lengthen locks. There was one long piece, hanging down the left side of his face, brushing behind his shoulder. His features were perfect—not a thing marred the person before me. Except his smile. The cruel and terrifying smirk that sent my spine into a quivering mess. Then the pale lips parted at the mouth opened and words froze my soul. _

"_Now _die!_" Xana shouted. Terrifying laughter followed, imitating insanity in its purest form. All the creatures reared back. All the blasts released._

_I remembered a single red feather drifting downward below me…_

(o)(O)(o)

_Warriors-_

_The super scan has found a Replika. It would be advised if you were to come to Lyoko destroy it today at 5:30 pm. _

_~Aisu_

Juno sat back and looked at the super computer screen. She had been typing her messages to the warriors either at this screen or on her typing device…which was broken. _How fitting._ Juno thought. _ It was only made out of a calculator you rigged with a transmitting device from spare parts._ The stupid wiring had snapped when she ran back to the school from the hospital. And after that she had dropped it on the roof. She managed to retrieve it…after the three stories of freefall and very hard ground had taken its toll. She glanced to her right where it lay next to the keyboard. Yep, broken screen, busted transmitter, and completely screwed up wiring. Wonderful.

_And it had typed like a cell phone and texted too. That took forever to program! _Juno looked back at her message. This would have been so much easier if she had not dropped it off the roof.

She read the message once again. And pressed delete. _That sounded like a summoning to court or something_. With a sigh, Juno placed her hands on the keyboard once more and started to retype the message.

(o)(O)(o)

Yumi was asleep. The working word in this sentence happened to be _was. _There was a buzzing by her head and a loud ringtone of notes trailing up and down the chromatic scale. Yumo groaned and picked up her cell phone as it rang again right next to her temple. More like by her ear. _Damn cell phone…to close…too early._ She flicked it open and pressed the 'accept text' option. She read the text. And then read it again. Then a third.

_Warriors,_

_Guess what? The super scan found a Replika. Joy of joys, right? Anyways. Come to Lyoko at 5:30pm to get rid of it. Under no circumstances will you shirk this responsibility._

_~Aisu_

Yumi groaned and glanced at the clock. The bright green numbers spelling out 4:30am glowed cheerily back at her. Aisu, replikas, and responsibilities…not to mention Jeremie was currently occupying a bed in the sick ward of the hospital. Who would be at the computer? Odd…definitely not. Aelita was managing the skidd. _Urg! Too early. At least two more hours of sleep…at le…_

Yumi didn't even finish her thought as she rolled over and fell into another deep sleep, dreaming up ways to murder Aisu and her ridiculous timing.

(o)(O)(o)

Juno sighed at the early five am chill that crept down her clothed spine. Today Juno was not in her regular pajamas. _Because I burned a freaking hole in them from my body temperature._ Nope, today Juno was clothed in some black sweatpants and a light ash gray tank-top that did not reveal anything in the case of someone feeling the urge to intrude upon her privacy.

Juno looked into her coffee that she had bought after returning from the computer. _It cannot really be coffee. More like…drain water. That's what it tastes like. Drain water._ Juno frowned and knew that in about twenty minutes her alarm almost directly below her would go off. But until her ears picked up such a sound…

Juno laid back against the roof. Her own little bit of space where nobody could bother her. The angle still kept her at least slightly upright as she stared at the gray dawn. A few rays from the peaking sun gave a bloody red glow to the clouds in the east. Juno frowned. _Not exactly a good start to the day…_ Juno watched the sun's blood red rays shoot up the sky in a graceful arc like a bow from a string, striking the blood red dawn with fervor. Juno came close to relaxation. Then Juno's ears picked up a faint beeping. Ah, five-thirty!

Juno grabbed the edged of the roof with one hand and expertly swung in her open (and by now, screen less) window. She landed and glanced at the silent clock.

…Silent? The winking alarm clock only read Five twenty! Juno glanced around until her eyes landed on her computer. She smirked and tapped the spacebar to wake the screen. There was an alert on a window at the edge of the screen. Juno clicked on it and read a rather angry reply of her message to the warriors from Aelita of all people.

_Dear Aisu_

_Thank you so much for alerting us about the Replika. But please, for the love of God, send it later next time! Four-thirty is NOT a good hour, despite whatever time zone you run on. Seriously. Make it six-forty next time around._

_Aelita_

Juno let out a snort of laughter before she closed the lid of the small computer and made it hibernate. She almost jumped as the alarm clock ran off in close to tornado alert beeps. She strode over and jammed the switch to off.

Within a few seconds, she dressed in her robe, grabbed a set of clothes without looking and set off with her shower bucket. Juno paced down the hall, finger combing her hair a bit. The smooth strands slowly unwove from the end of her pleat. The corridor was close to silent before she opened the bathroom's heavy wood door. The normally dark room was brightly lit, indicating someone was there. Juno practically tread on her toes as she headed to the shower section. Her hair still mostly in its tight roped form, she glanced around a bit before seeing someone familiar in unfamiliar circumstances.

"Why, Aelita. Five-thirty seems a bit early for you." The girl looked at her with sleepy blue eyes. It was apparent that she had not even made it to the shower when Juno had walked in.

"Yeah, well since when was five-thirty a time for you to be all joyful?" Aelita muttered, her eyes closing as she suppressed a yawn. She failed spectacularly before continuing to the showers. Juno joined her and set the tap on hot. The violet eyed girl looked Aelita sparingly.

"Aelita, you turn the handle to the right for getting hot water, not left." Aelita lazily reached into the shower and turned it the opposite direction. Her bleary eyes showed that she did not care that she was sleep deprived in the slightest. Juno gave a mental shrug and stepped in, a pale hand snaking out and hooking her robe on the knob right outside the curtain.

Juno showered quickly and then dressed. She scowled as she realized that she had accidentally grabbed a regular pair of blue-jeans (although in a dark hue) instead of her normal black. Even so, she still had a black tank top with a few bronze sequins dotting the neckline as if it made a draped necklace.

The medium heighted girl brushed out her hair before running her fingers through it. The water in her hair heated up and began to dry slightly faster from the heat of Juno's fingers. The short artificial intelligence was not even attempting to dry her hair any faster. Her fingers were simply…that warm. When the black length of hair was mostly dry, she started her French braid as usual.

By the time a much more awake Aelita stepped out of the shower (also fully clothed), Juno was down to the last few pleats. She walked by the black-haired A.I and looked at her accusingly. Juno spared her a glance as she tied an elastic band in her hair before adding the ring of jade and yet another hair tie.

"Yes?" Juno asked, while pointing a look towards Aelita at why was glaring at her disapprovingly.

"Juno, let your hair out sometime." The corner of Juno's mouth twitched yet a smile did not appear.

"I do not see a reason why I should." Juno replied, placing her wood hair-brush on the counter. Juno frowned, looking into her clear water bucket.

"What?" Aelita inquired. Juno lifted the bucket over a sink and tipped several ounces of water into it. Aelita gave a small chuckle. After vigorously wiping the rest of the water out with a paper towel, Juno picked up her robe and turned to the door. Aelita followed as they left the washroom and headed towards their own separate rooms.

(o)(O)(o)

"Lea! We have a game today!" Juno twisted in the hallway as she walked to her choir audition. Jim crossed his arms and tried to appear intimidating as if he could make her more inspired to play.

"Why me?" she called back.

"Emily is sick and can't make it. It must be hard to play soccer when your temperature is over one-hundred." _Somehow I manage though._ Juno thought silently. "Be on the field dressed and ready at three. It's Saturday, so no classes after all." Juno snorted. They would be done by four-thirty. That gave enough time to let the game out.

"Don't look so down cast. You might not play at all…unless the crowd picks you." Jim continued. Juno looked at him mildly confused. "We put out the team roster every game. The fans who watch highlight who they want to see play the most and at the end of the three period as a bit of entertainment, we count the votes and whoever they pick has to play off and on the rest of the game." Juno looked a bit interested but let it slide. So if they wanted her to play, so be it.

_After all, what they see is what they get…essentially. _Juno continued down the hall to the choir room.

One thing that Juno had figured out after being placed haphazardly in that damn scanner when she materialized was that her vocal range was very, _very_ wide. She could go as high as Christine Daae from _Phantom of the Opera_ to as low as a tenor to even part of a range of a baritone in a boys choir. At first this revelation was a bit odd to her, seeing as she could sing Sharon den Adel's voice first before switching to something like My Chemical Romance. And Juno also found she could change her tone as well. She could closely match the singing voices of a Broadway singer just as well as she could an opera soprano. Her speaking voice was different though. She could not imitate a speaking voice as readily and well.

Once inside the white door of the room, Juno met a line waiting to go into a soundproof room usually used for practicing band students. Juno glanced at the other three (extremely nervous) kids. One was a junior with sanded blond hair, just hoping to get into concert. The next was a freshman who had a kind face with warm hazel eyes and red-ish hair. She hummed a few scales and practiced breathing to prepare. The last was another girl who was a senior. Her posture and the way she had decided to arrange her facial features (in a smirk of arrogance) showed that she expected concert choir to be her goal.

Juno took a deep breath, feeling her diaphragm expand to take in air. She followed the freshman girl's lead and sung a few scales, making sure to go over the ones with sharps and flats. By the time the last of the line in front of her had filtered in and auditioned and the line behind Juno waited with annoyed nervousness, Juno heard something.

"Next for auditions—Juno Lea" Juno walked into the room with the eyes of the others behind her.

(o)(O)(o)

Jeremie Belpois was up for a surprise when a nurse in pastel pink scrubs slipped into her room and announced he had a visitor. He was even _more_ surprised when the black-haired black clothed person that slipped into the room was not Yumi.

"Juno Lea, what dragged you out of you cave this time?" Juno ignored the small mouthy comment from the blonde and opened her backpack she had slung on her shoulder. Other than the backpack there was a small box in her arms about three feet long and two feet wide which was placed on a chair.

"Giving you your homework." She said as the multiple text books she produced were placed on his bedside table in a perfect stack.

"Why wouldn't Aelita or someone drop it by?" He snorted weakly. "Why you?" Juno gave him a long stare, as if questioning her own sanity.

"Aelita asked me to. She had computer programming and a test, Odd had math tutor and if he skipped he would have gotten a suspension, Ulrich had band, and Yumi had an algebra II test. Yumi also told me that you should check your phone unless you, and I quote, 'feel the need to become so much like a hermit you copy Juno'." Jeremie gave a wry chuckle. "An answer which I unfortunately agree with."

Juno slung her backpack over her shoulder and straitened up. Jeremie followed the movement warily, as if he was looking to see if she would attack him. One odd look later made sure that Jeremie knew he was under no threat.

"What? The first visitor I get all day wants to leave?" A weak smile played on his lips.

"Not quite. A fourth of the freshman class gave you what Jim called a traditional gift." She opened the box and drew out a bouquet of a wide variety of flowers. Jeremie cocked his head at the bouquet." I was told that everyone in the class buys a flower to put into the bouquet and sent."

She put the flowers in a vase she bought and filled it with the water in his pitcher. "Do they have tags on who sent what?" Jeremie asked, in question of the small paper tags hanging off the flowers. Juno nodded.

She motioned to a bright pink rose that had yet to bloom. "This is Aelita's rose. Odd's is the daffodil and Ulrich's is the lily." Jeremie's eyebrows raised at Odd and Ulrich's flower. "I believe Yumi picked out Odd and Ulrichs."

"That explain it. How many people gave me flowers anyway?" Juno shrugged in a thoughtful manner.

"Twenty five or so. As I said, a fourth of your class." Juno collapsed the box and shoved it under her arm. "And now I take my leave."

"Have fun with being a hermit." Jeremie called out. She walked to the door haltingly.

"Get better soon."

"Huh, and I had always thought you were a cold heartless person."

"Oh, assumptions are such terrible things." She looked back at him and graced him with a small smile. "They are far to offer proven wrong."

_**Aelita POV**_

"And here we are! This is the Kadic Havocs verses the Pire school Turners. This is Milly, and I am your announcer today with my friend Tamia!" the loudspeaker boomed. I winced. We had picked the worst place to sit (aka, right by the loud speaker). I took a long look at the field. The Kadic team stood by their bench in uniforms of navy blue soccer shorts and blue and white jerseys while the Pire school team stood by in blue and yellow. Yumi glanced over at me and pointed someone out. I looked closer at the black hair twisted into a rope.

_Heh, Juno got trapped. Emily's absence means she has to play!_ I looked down at team roster and waved my pen over it. Should I pick Odd? Ulrich? Or better yet…

"And here, Ladies and Gentlemen" there was a faint murmur in the background by Tamia that sounded like 'and Sissi and Nicholas' at which the crowed giggled in response "is the Kadic Havocs!" The people starting ran on the field and took their positions. Yumi and I followed our friends as Ulrich and Odd took their places as Foreword and midfield. I took another peek at the bench. There were only six other people left, including the black haired half-wonder.

Yumi nudged me and pointed at the white ball that was now being dribbled between Ulrich and another freshman. Ulrich expertly wove around the Turner's defensive team. He passed to Odd as he came to a block. Odd paused with the ball under his right foot. Two people broke off the people they were guarding previously to come at him. Odd realized it was about time to pick up where Ulrich left off. He dribbled.

It was an exciting game. The Havocs were up by one by the end of the third period with a score of three to four. But then, of course there was the ever so waited for roster pick. They had collected my and Yumi's roster sheet and were about to pick who would play. After a twenty minute break for the team and twenty minutes of counting votes, Milly got back to the announcer box.

"The results are in on who the crowed wants to see the most! In third place, Odd Della-Robia!" The Odd fans cheered. I could not actually see the spiky haired guy, but I could tell he was beaming. "In second place, Ulrich Stern." I raised an eyebrow. Usually Ulrich went with first place.

"The oddities continue." Yumi yelled over the cheering. I agreed.

"And in first place by twenty-seven votes and an altogether surprising result…" Milly took a long pause and waited for the crowd to calm itself. "Juno. Kasserine. LEA!" I could almost hear her exasperated groan as she slumped down in her seat. Jim said something to he and she reached behind her and pulled up her braid. Juno tugged at the ornamental jade ring and gave it to Jim, saying something back in return.

(o)(O)(o)

_**Juno POV**_

"Lea, no Jewelry." I pulled my ring from my hair and gave it to him. He looked at me accusingly. I gave him a winning innocent wide eyed look that clearly read _Why, no Jim! I'm not wearing my necklace! I left my ring in the locker room (or looped it around my upper arm out of sight)! _He gave a suspicious glare before pocketing my ring.

"Congrats, Juno, now get your butt on the field and pretend to appreciate the popularity." Ulrich whispered. The corners of her mouth twitched yet the neutral line remained. Sighing, she got off of the bench and walked to the center mid-field position. Odd and Ulrich followed suit. The goalie and other midfield and two forewords came as well. Finally we started to play again.

Ulrich got the ball first and passed it to Odd. Odd dribbled around a defender. I ran towards the goal, quickly catching up to Odd who had finally gotten stuck by a defender. Or two. The person who had been guarding me decided that I was not much of a threat and had trapped Odd instead.

"Odd!" I heard myself say. He glanced at me before taking in the rest of the options…or option. That was to go back, and that plan would never work. Finally, with an almost defeated look, Odd kicked to ball towards me. It came a bit high, so I let it hit my stomach. Instinctively, I lifted my leg to bounce the ball on my thigh before letting it touch the ground. The second it did I flew off, dribbling past the shocked defense.

My peripheral vision told me that the Turner's defense had finally shaken off their amazement and decided to do something about me. Meaning, they sprinted after me, full force and with murder in their look. Ulrich caught my eye from the left and I gave a short nod. I sent a kick towards him.

Ulrich sprinted off with the people guarding me in hot pursuit. I took off down the middle. This time, their defense was a little smarter and copied my movements. I growled in the back of my throat. I gave another glance at Ulrich who was only a foot away. He seemed right by the goal and set to score…until someone punted the ball away.

It was a direct flashback to the day I was recruited to the team. The soccer ball was high in the air, going above my head. I spun around. And took six steps before jumping. I lifted my right leg first before following it with my left. My left foot connected with the ball, the kick sending me all the way over in a bicycle kick. I landed with a soft thump and sunk to my knees to reduce the shock. I heard a few cheers and looked behind me.

Ulrich had managed to recover the ball after it fell a bit short of the goal and was _now_ ready to score. I turned and began to run again. There was an exclamation from the crowed and Milly gave the update on the score.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, with the score of 4-2 in the Kadic Havoc's favor due to a goal by Ulrich stern—" The crowd roared in approval.

"Heavily assisted by Juno Lea" Tamia added. Another cheer.

"And the Turners do not look happy! It might take a major comeback to take down these players." _Oh how true, Milly._

"Lea!" another midfield passed me the ball. I bounced it off my foot before shouting to Ulrich and sprinting off after him. Odd was to my left as we swiftly ran down the field. I dodged my defense. His eyes narrowed and he chased after me. Ulrich passed Odd the ball, who in turn, passed to me. I smirked and knew I had a clear shot at the goal.

_Wham!_ I tumbled to the ground. My defender had just 'accidentally' rammed into me. I saw the ball by my left foot. I rolled to my back and roped the ball in between my legs. I grabbed the ball with my feet and tossed it into the air. While in the air…I kicked it. Odd followed through and nabbed the ball before passing to the other foreword and letting him score.

"Ouch! The Turners are down three points! That was a goal by Matt Komer, assisted by Odd Della-Robia! And Odd was assisted by Juno! That was an amazing move, don't you think?" The crowed cooed in ecstasy.

_Maybe this 'soccer' thing is not so bad…_ I thought, scanning the clouds for the sun. _One hour until we need to go._

"Here!" I shouted! A midfielder saw my open space and kicked the ball towards me with relief. I stopped the ball's movement with my foot before heading down the field again. I passed to Ulrich. He smirked and zigzagged around the defense.

From there, the ball was passed to Odd. Odd gave a wild-fire grin and sprang up from his attentive position and dribbled. Another pass to Ulrich. Ulrich was cornered.

"Ulrich!" I shouted. He glanced at me and gave a strong kick towards me. I didn't even stop the ball's movement—I just…made it go another way.

I _smashed_ the ball with my foot in a kick towards the goal. The goalie jumped. The ball hit his fingers.

The ball hit the back of the net.

"_SCORE!_ Juno Lea! Give her approval!"

(o)(O)(o)

I pulled my normal shirt over my head after a shower in the locker room. It felt so much better to have regular clothes on than those soccer uniforms.

"Juno!" I looked up from brushing my bangs from my face after hearing a slightly hoarse female voice. "That was awesome!"

"Ano…" I said rather ungracefully in Japanese while looking around for the person. But I did not see anyone. I sighed. I did not have time for this.

"Over here, genius girl." I looked towards the door. There was Emily, cheeks and nose red, eyes a little watery from sneezing, wearing something that was very close to pajamas, and holding what looked like a few cough drops. "You played really well. I watched from the infirmary window." I almost smiled at her approval. Instead, I gave a quick nod and attached my stone ring that I had reclaimed from Jim. After securing it with a second hair tie and rolling my shoulders a bit, my attention returned to the brunette that stood in by the doorway around the wall of lockers.

"Hey, why do you have a chain around your upper arm?" I mentally slapped myself. _I forgot to take the ring off!_ I hastily slid it down my arm and unlooped it.

"I was hiding it from Jim. I pulled it under my sleeve instead of having it around my neck." In saying so, the loop of chain and ring found its way back home around my neck. I slipped the necklace into my short sleeved band T-shirt and shut my locker with a loud clang. Emily snuffled a bit.

"What was the final score?" she asked.

"Seven to two." Emily beamed and then coughed. "Come on Emily, you need to go back to the infirmary." Emily gave a weak smile and then followed me out the door.

"See you at practice?" she asked.

"Only if I'm drafted again."

"After that performance there isn't a doubt."

(o)(O)(o)

In truth, I was scared about the vision I had seen this morning. I had pushed it off with auditions for the choir and the soccer game. Also the updates on the Skidd (which I finished, thank God) kept me occupied for the morning. There was already an extra pod for Jeremie if he ever made it to Lyoko or William once we found the anti-virus to reject Xana's influence…all I did was add another pod and tweak.

But yet…

"_Now die!"_

Was that…

Was that the true form of Xana?

Blond hair and cruel smile?

It couldn't be.

A white angelic figure could never be that cruel…

Yet…

He was evil.

I shuddered. The metal of the ladder down to the computer room felt even colder than normal. I had deducted that it was from the raised temperature in my body. I had refused to take the elevator seeing as the Lyoko warriors would have to bring it back up, wasting time.

The ladder probably hadn't been used in some time, considering my hands picked up dust. Needless to say, by the time I got the doors open to the computer room my hands were almost black with different dust particles. I hurriedly wiped my hands on my jeans and woke up the controls.

The bright holo-map of Lyoko burst to life, the green forest sector, blue, violet, orange, and black s revolving around the dark navy blue of sector five. I guessed that Blazen had turned up as black on the map to match the grass and tree trunks.

In any case, I needed to stop stalling and load the updating codes for the skid. I placed the disk in the slot. The screen blinked with a three dimensional image of the new Skidd design. It looked generally the same but with an extra pod. The shield was a bit stronger and there were more weapons than a few torpedoes. I left the image on so that Aelita could see it.

But after that memory I was not so sure that sector five would be the best thing.

But my duty to respond to the threat of the replica…

_Just go and get it over with! _I pressed a few keys until a window popped up onto the screen. I glanced at the caption. _Lion's Den. Hmph. I would be hard pressed to call sector five a 'Lion's Den'._

Noticing the time left on the countdown, I slipped out of the chair and jumped down the hole to the scanners, skipping the ladder completely. The open scanner waited for me as I took my leave of the world around me.

(o)(O)(o)

_**Normal POV**_

"Is everyone in the scanners?"

"Yeah Aelita. Just virtualized us and then virtualized yourself, okay?" Yumi said. The scanner doors closed. A warm rush of air blew past her ears and made her hair stand on end. A small rush later and Yumi's body felt like it had been plunged into ice water.

Feeling returned from the top of her head down, sliding over her neck and torso until it reached the very end of her toes. As awareness returned she prepared herself to land on the navy blue floor of sector five.

"Are you all on Lyoko?" Aelita asked, voice echoing around the circular room.

"I should say so." The three warriors turned to see Aisu cross-legged on the floor in the middle of the white dot in Xana's 'eye'. Her wide sword was on her lap and black-streaked red hair fell down her shoulders in a soft waves.

"And Aisu as well. Okay, I'll start the delayed virtualization process for myself." They heard the tapping of a few keys and then a clatter as the headset hit the keyboard.

"Where's Jeremie?" Aisu asked, hiding her face with her bangs.

"Not here." Ulrich said. Aisu rubbed her forehead.

"What's wrong with you? Feel sick?" Odd asked while jumping to his feet enthusiastically. A short nod. "Don't worry, it'll go away once you do a few virtualizations here. Always happened to me, isn't that weird?"

"Or _odd_." Ulrich said smirking. The person in pun grinned. Aisu groaned.

"I am _never_ virtualizing here again if I can help it." The malice in her voice took them all aback. "God be _damned _sector." Aisu rose to her feet. And swayed.

"You have quite the reaction to this, you know." Yumi said. "The only person who had this much difficulty at first was Aelita." Aelita frowned, landing gracefully next to Aisu.

"I heard that." She giggled. "Anyway. Everyone is here and we should go for the key."

"There is not a way to keep the three minute countdown." Aisu kindly reminded, all feelings of nausea finally disappearing. "That might lock out our options."

"We'll have to get a key!" Odd exclaimed. The group gave a long stare at him.

"That was the worst joke I have ever heard, Odd. And I _live_ with you." The others smiled at Ulrich but did not laugh.

"I say we just go for it." Yumi said suddenly. The others looked at her. "I mean, we can have someone take the count and either stay out or have enough brain power to count and fight." Aisu nodded, red hair clashing with her kimono.

"I can keep count." She said. The gigantic sword was lifted and hooked onto her backt. The team looked towards the opening that had been there all this time, ever since Aisu had landed on the sector herself. Aisu looked at the others, hiding the fear she knew was there deep down.

Fear from Xana.

Fear of inability

Fear of her vision.

And above all…

Fear they would know.

(o)(O)(o)

_Wow…that took a long time to write. Sorry if this was kind of a filler chapter. First story! First story! Anyway. The story is over 5,000 words and took a while to write (duh, since you guys must be so mad at me). And guys, REMEMBER that AELITA was very NASUEATED when first going to sector five. THIS IS IMPORTANT. I'm giving you this heads up because I thought some people might forget later on._

_Why, yes! I am taking this a bit faster!_

_**I HAVE A POLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!**_

_**REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**_


	14. The Beginning part 2

_Disclaimer: I do not own Code: Lyoko_

_Hello! Chapter 14 right at you!_

_The Beginning Part 2_

-000-000-000-

Jeremie looked at his bunch of flowers Juno had left. He saw Odd and Ulrich's in the middle with Aelita's pink rose between them. All the flowers had tags on them in the tight loopy cursive that the small flower shop in the city used. It was a rather rag-tag bunch for a bouquet, since every flower was a different type. _Well, that isn't true. There are a _few_ repeats_. But all generally different.

All of them had tags. All of them except for a single stem of white oleander flowers. Now, Jeremie was not a person who knew what different types of flowers meant. But he was bored as _hell_ and spent the better part of the day finding all the types of flowers and figuring out what each meant. Aelita's rose obviously meant love and happiness. Ulrich's lily meant keeping unwanted visitors away (even though _Juno_ had delivered it), and Odd's own flower meant respect…which was ironic because he was sure Odd did not respect him very much. Sissi's flower was a peony, sadly meaning it was an aphrodisiac.

The white and tag-less oleander meant protection. Jeremie wondered who had added it to the bunch. Maybe someone just forgot to add the tag. Or the florist added it as a discount…after all, the owner was a good friend with his 'old partner Jim' (who when questioned had rather not talked about it). Speaking of which, Jim's flower had actually been quite different. It was a…spike flower and meant pity.

_Not that he took pity on me when I ran that damn cross-country route._

Jeremie plucked the soft pink rose from the vase and leaned back in the hospital bed. He made sure he did not upset the IV port on his arm in the process. Lifting the rose to his face, he inhaled deeply. The soft scent of sweet forever engulfed his senses. Despite the rose's wonderfully calming effects, Jeremie still shifted a bit in his bed.

_Stupid diabetes. Stupid disease running in the family. Stupid, stupid, stupid!_ Jeremie was getting frustrated. When did the doctor say he could go?

"_A few days to get used to taking insulin, okay? We don't want you dying right after you leave our doorsteps!"_

Right. Let the boredom continue.

Then a thought struck Jeremie that would give him about three hours worth of things to do.

_Yumi told me to check my phone! _Jeremie scrabbled to get to his cell phone, turning it on and finding a text from the super computer and Yumi. The news at first made him itch to leave and get to his rightful position at the computer. The second text stopped him.

_Jeremie, if you go to the super computer today, Aelita will hang you and Aisu would laugh while you died. Stay and rest, we can handle it. After all, we have a genius and an A.I on our side. What can go wrong?_

Jeremie sighed. If something, _anything_ went wrong he would blame Aisu. The mouthy and arrogant A.I just…rubbed the wrong way to Jeremie…just _oh so _similar to Juno.

_Juno and Aisu together…that must be the definition of hell. _Jeremie almost shuddered. Why did Juno have to be so right about everything, be the savior when they failed to fight in the real world? Why did Aisu have to be there to mock his wrong decisions, make them right, and then _destroy_ any defense Xana laid? It made him feel incompetent! And both of them made him feel out of control.

And Jeremie Belpois was a _control freak._ So Juno and Aisu made him feel like a weak and worthless child who did not stay at the top of his class and save the world on a weekly basis. Jeremie Belpois WAS at the top of his class and saved the world on a weekly basis! So why did he feel so…immature…so juvenile next to them?

Maybe it was because Juno was better at computer programming and math. Maybe it was because Aisu knew the the same amount about the super computer but still fought on Lyoko. And it annoyed him. _He_ was the Einstein! Not Juno…or Aisu!

So no matter how many times Odd may say 'she isn't that bad' to either of them or Ulrich agrees on something Juno said…Jeremie refused to let _his_ rightful position up. After all, it was _Juno_ who came to school three weeks in, and _Aisu_ who had not been there since the beginning.

Juno was late to be an extra of the team by over a year.

Juno was a loner who demanded to be left in solitude.

Juno was a Goth that only looked coldly at all who passed her.

Juno was terrible at trusting people.

Juno was always finding something better about her than everyone else in the group.

So why? Why trust Juno? Why trust Aisu? Where were they when they needed the support? Jeremie could guarantee that Juno and Aisu had been absent from all disasters that had come up until recent times. So…

Where was Aisu when Xana took control of the wolves that nearly killed Ulrich?

Where was Aisu when Xana tried to blow up the city?

Where was Aisu when Odd nearly drowned?

Where was Aisu when Aelita needed her memory back?

Where was Aisu when William was taken over?

She was not there. Aisu was not there for them. So why did the others suddenly think that she was the most amazing thing that ever happened since the super computer dragged them into this whole mess? Jeremie thought he could trust her about as much as he could find the cure to all cancers. And considering he was no miracle worker or even doctor, he doubted that he could trust her.

And this was the reason Jeremie was so bitter towards the quiet Juno and arrogant Aisu. Why was he even thinking about them anyway?

Jeremie sighed softly, fingering the pink rose before gently setting it back in the vase.

-000-000-000-

Aisu was the last to enter the depths of sector five. Aelita had gone in first and Aisu had mentally started the three minute count down. She whispered the time out loud, just an extra precaution to make sure not to lose the slippery and evasive numbers.

Then, with a startled yelp, Odd pin wheeled his arms. His toes and the balls of his feet hung off the edge of the hallway. Because after the corridor ended…there was nothing.

The room they had sprinted into was actually rather bland for Xana's tastes, according to Aelita. The room was large and square. The walls had a few ridges spaced unevenly in them, just wide enough for someone to balance on before attempting to clamber up to the next ledge. A few round beams crisscrossed from one wall to the next, all barely suitable to stand on. It seemed possible to grab on with your hands, but to try to hold them would be near suicidal. The floor, however, seemed to be the most dangerous. What would be the floor was an empty pit with a mere ten rectangles to land on first.

Aisu threw a glance at Odd. He stood side-by-side with Yumi as they looked for Xana's creatures. Ulrich was next to Aelita to make sure she would not get hurt. Aisu looked up and down the strait walls but could not see the key.

_2:55 remaining._

"Our best bet is up, right?" Odd asked. Aisu looked up to the _ceiling._ That was over a two hundred feet! Aisu could jump thirty feet…forty if she had enough _inspiration._ How was anyone supposed to get up there?

_2:40 remaining._

Yumi was the first to jump on a rectangle in the void. It wobbled uncertainly and it drifted over a few feet from the momentum of Yumi's jump. With a startled yelp, Yumi hit the deck and lay on her stomach to gain her breath. Aisu took a side long glance at Ulrich who had looked horrified for a few seconds. Ulrich super-sprinted and jumped on the nearest platform to her. His jump was a bit more graceful as his platform only floated a foot or so. He leaned towards Yumi, platform raft sinking down a bit the direction his weight was centered.

"Yumi, are you okay?" she climbed to her feet shakily. She wobbled a bit between her left and right foot to get used to the odd way they raft-like platform moved. Odd gave the rafts a small look before leaning down and waving his arm through the abyss. He frowned.

"There's…nothing."

"What did you expect?" Aelita asked.

"Water or something." Odd replied. Yumi and Ulrich nodded.

"Look at the platforms Ulrich and Yumi are standing on. The air beneath it acts like water." Aisu explained. "Ulrich and Yumi 'flailing' on one of these 'rafts' is similar to standing on a stiff platform in a common swimming pool." Yumi and Ulrich glanced at her when Aisu had said flailing, but did not answer otherwise.

_2:25 remaining._

"The only way is up, right?" Aelita said. Nobody spoke a word but they all nodded. "Aisu, can't you jump on one of the beams?"

Aisu looked at her like she was crazy before saying "if the cross-beams were twenty feet lower and in a better position than where they are at this moment. I would have to try for a ledge."

With that idea shot down, Odd jumped on one of the rafts with enough forward momentum to push it across to the other side of the room. Aelita leapt as well and Aisu took the last raft. Their motion was minimal, but the platforms still slid. Aelita and Aisu did not even waver. Aisu glanced at the nearest ridge on the wall. It was far too high of a jump for any of them, even she herself. Aisu would probably be able to brush it with her fingertips, but would not be able to cling to the edge and clamber up.

"Who wishes to be thrown?" the warriors gave Aisu a long look that gave an impression that she was indeed crazy. "The only way to get to the ridge is to be thrown. None of you can jump as high as it. Even I cannot reach such a hight."

Ulrich backed away, saying he would rather not be thrown again. Yumi looked skeptical. Odd…actually took the offer. Aisu lightly landed on his raft cupped her fingers together.

"Are you sure this will work?" Odd received a green-eyed glare in response. "I see." He carefully planted one foot onto her slim fingers. Her hands did not move an inch, giving them the appearance of a cream colored marble statue. Odd subtly glanced at her. She did not look too strained from his weight.

"Get on with it." Aisu said. "We have two minutes and five seconds to find and get to the key." Odd grimaced and shifted his full weight into her hands. They dipped a bit on accident, but then Aisu's hands nearly fell from beneath him. This feeling was short lived, however, as Aisu shoved her hands up with enough force Odd shot straight into the air. Odd swung his arm and depended on his claws to sink into the edge of the ledge that his palm had grazed. The extensions of his fingers did not fail him and Odd was saved the fate of free falling off the ledge and into oblivion.

Odd swung himself up and over the side, looking relieved he had made it. He gave quick thumbs up to signal Aisu was ready to throw another warrior.

"Do it again!" Odd shouted. The remaining warriors blinked. Odd's ecctatic smile lit up with the thrill of the throw. "Who's next?"

"I guess since nobody is volunteering, I will pick…Ulrich." Aisu stated. He blanched. "If you do not get over here, I will drag you here." He hid a grimace and took a long and dangerous jump over. Odd managed to catch him when he got near to the ledge, and helped pull him up.

"You're crazy!" Ulrich shouted, very, very scared of his current height. Aisu did not look up to acknowledge his predicament. Instead, she motioned for Yumi to jump over. Yumi was caught by Ulrich, and Aelita helped up by Yumi so after.

"Ready for the hardest part?" Aelita's head popped up from above the edge as she crawled to her knees. "Ready to catch me?"

"It can't be that hard. You aren't that heavy." Yumi stated. It was obvious the others agreed.

"But unlike you, I have a rather large sword which I am reluctant to leave behind." This made the group above her grimace. "When I jump, someone catch my wrists."

"You can jump this high?" Odd enquired. "Impressive."

"That is why you are catching my wrists. I cannot jump as high as to _grab_ the ledge." Aisu backed up to the very edge of the raft. Then she sprinted the few feet to the end before driving her leg into the air with the opposite arm to help. For some strange reason, Ulrich was immediately reminded of Juno doing a bicycle kick, although he did not know why.

Yumi and Ulrich leaned over the edge of the ridge to catch her wrists. Odd, noticing how far the two were stretching, grabbed Ulrich's ankles and Aelita did the same for Yumi. As Aisu stretched her arms towards the two's waiting hands. Yumi latched onto her wrist, refusing to let go. Ulrich tried to do the same, but missed.

Aisu looked down, suddenly wishing it was Odd who had tried to catch her other wrist. Aisu lay flat against the wall, toes pointed down in her sandels while the left arm of her kimono fell down to bunch around her shoulder as she presented her wrist which Yumi held. Yumi started to slide foreword and Ulrich stretched to grab Aisu's other wrist. She stretched to meet him and together they pulled her over the side and to safety. After shifting to a sitting position, Aisu glanced to the next area to grab.

_1:58 remaining._

"There's another ledge I can throw one of you on. Who volunteers?" Ulrich looked sick. Apparently, looking down had caused some nauseated feeling to arise.

"Not me…" the samurai muttered, spellbound at the sight of an endless stretch of empty, gapping space where the floor should be. Yumi pulled him away and he sank to a sitting position.

"You should stay on this level." Aelita consoled. Ulrich looked shaky as if he suddenly thought the entire idea of his friends going higher was ludicrous. Odd waved him off and glanced at the A.I expectantly. After a glance at the next ledge (which was only about thirty feet this time), Odd shrugged.

Aisu beckoned for the remaining group members to gather around and one by one stepped into Aisu's laced fingers thrown sky bound to the next ledge. There they paused. Aisu could not throw all of them anymore. Odd was too heavy and Yumi was too tall. Only Aelita could be thrown to the beam above.

_1:20 left._

Aisu laced her fingers. Aelita looked at her. "You're throwing me again_?_" Aisu let all weight sink to one knee and cocked her head. "What do I grab onto?" The crimson and black streaked A.I rolled her eyes with mild amusement.

"Aelita, I have thrown you over sixty feet already. What difference is getting you twenty more feet into the air?"

"Aelita, you're going to grab onto that beam, okay?" Yumi told her. "You can do that right?" Aelita looked a little anxious at the thought of catching a four inch pole.

"If you fall, we can catch you." Odd told her. Aelita did not look comforted. Apparently the thought of falling had not crossed through her mind, and Odd had just brought up this terrible possibility. Aelita shuddered and then glanced at Aisu. The green-eyed girl was seemingly adjusting her large sword to a better position to jump. Aelita really knew Aisu was listening to the conversation intently.

"Aelita, if you do not step into my hands in five seconds I will grab your shirt and throw you up there without preparation." Aelita would have turned a satisfying shade of red if they were in the real world. Hesitantly, Aelita placed one foot into her connected hands. Then she put a hand on the A.I's shoulder and crouched.

"On the count of three?" the pink-haired girl asked. Aisu nodded.

"One" Aisu said and crouched low, making sure she could counteract any balance problems.

"Two" Aelita whispered, tensing for the jump.

"Three!" Aisu sprung up and launched Aelita high in the air, a foot away from the pole. Aelita reached out with both hands and managed to grab on with one. Yumi and Odd rushed beneath her, but Aelita was secure. She pulled her other hand to grab the bar and painfully pulled herself up to straddle the bar.

Without another hesitation, Aisu took another long jump. With a slight angle and a flip, Aisu landed on the bar perfectly balanced. Aelita glared at her from her bad position. She took the mistake of looking down, and she swayed. Ulrich was looking up at her, a blurred look of worry set on his features. Odd and Yumi were still waiting to catch her. Then she saw the abyss of nothing but darkness with a pinpoint of light on the other side. It had to be a reflection from Ulrich's unsheathed swords.

…Unsheathed?

_58 seconds to go._

There was a red burst of light and Aisu jumped a split second before it touched her feet. She landed much more unsteady this time. I looked down again. Ulrich was dodging red lasers as the creeper advanced towards him. Odd and Yumi were currently handling two of the damned creations at the same time.

The fourth had a much trickier place. It was on one of the ledges that the pole led to. And the main targets were Aisu and Aelita. The creeper that started shooting at the two. Aelita was close to powerless at the angles she was at and Aisu was not much better. Unsheathing the large cleaver sword would practically be suicide—there was no way Aisu could counteract the balance issue then. Aisu then did the only thing she could honestly think of.

The spiral on her left hand lit up one straight line at a time as she held her left hand out and put two fingers of her right hand just above her wrist.

_40 seconds._

"**Zerstörende Kunst fünfzehn, Feuer des Hasses!**" The incantation of the chant she had used so long ago when Xana had forced her to stay in the real world was shortened considerably. She could only hope that Ulrich had not heard her call.

Her entire hand glowed with a red mask of light. There was flash of burning crimson as red energy was thrown at the creeper in a spray of crackling fire. The light splashed the torso and legs of the creeper and it raised its head back and moaned it what must have been pain. When the round cranium of the monster came _back_ down, however, there was an ominous red glow in its mouth. It fired.

Aisu let out a hiss of pain as her left leg was hit. She knew that was about ten life points down the drain. Her now sore leg slipped out from beneath her and for one scary moment the team thought she would fall. She would have, except for her left leg wrapping around the pole. There, hanging from her left knee, swung Aisu…crimson halos of hair, sword slipping from her back, green eyes burning, and lips soundlessly mouthing words she did not even know. Aelita slipped from the beam and caught herself.

The bar shook.

The sword fell.

Aisu spread her hands apart and then flung them towards each other. They passed by the opposite hand as though both were missing a high five. Then she pulled her hands apart again and flung them in the direction of the creeper. The burst of light started as a spiral. Somewhere between that spiral and the end result of an exploding creeper, the red energy almost turned into an arrow that hit the target right on.

There was cheering from below her. Aisu climbed back on the bar and dragged Aelita to her feet. Aelita squeaked in surprise as Aisu ran to the ledge at the end of the pole, making Aelita stumble haphazardly behind her. They made it, Aelita eventually being tossed on the ledge before Aisu stepped on the blue ridge.

_30 seconds._

Aisu jumped to the next bar alone this time. Aelita stared up at her, wondering what made the bright haired girl leave her behind. She stepped a few feet so the ridge was no longer beneath her

"Aisu!" Aisu looked down at her from her position.

"Twenty seconds!"

What happened next was so indescribable. Aisu turned her head as they heard a blast issue from a monster. It caught her shoulder, and Aisu fell, twisting through the air. She reached out to grab the edge and for a moment it looked as if she was saved.

Her fingers only grazed it. Aisu fell, so close to the wall it was ironic. Past the red hair that was almost completely obstructing Aisu's view, she saw Aelita look over the side and down at her, eyes wide. It hurt to look. Avoiding the sparkling blue gaze, Aisu turned in the air and disappeared from view.

There were a few seconds of utter silence. Aelita counted down the time in her head.

_Ten, nine, eight, seven…_

There was no sign of the emerald-eyes A.I. All must be lost for her. Who knew where the pit led? The virtual sea?

_Six, five, four…three?_

All of the sudden, the lighting changed. The ridges started to sink lower and lower so gain access to the ground. A pathway opened by Ulrich's ledge. And even more amazing than that, was the bottomless pit. Floors were rising from its depths. And on one of those platforms in the middle was a large flat sword with a cloth wrapped handle.

Even more amazing was a person sprawled out on her stomach, her head to the side and her right hand stretched out as if to reach for something. Red lips were parted slightly and the A.I's fingers on her other hand were slack. Aisu's eyes were closed and her hair spread around in twisted patterns.

"Aisu?" Aelita spoke. There was a lack of response. "_Aisu!_" Nothing.

Aelita jumped down and rushed to her. Tentatively, she touched her shoulder.

Nothing.

A gentle shake.

Only them a hand tightened on the grip of the hilt. Her other hand pulled into a fist. She groaned and rolled onto her back. Her hand flopped onto her stomach. Aisu's eyelids parted to show emerald eyes, slightly dulled with a winded look lacking any focus.

"Aisu?" They blinked and then met the blue eyes of Aelita. She coughed.

"Ow…"

"What happened?"

"I hit the key…" she sat up, legs crossing in front of her. She tried to get up and swayed dangerously. Aelita steadied the girl.

"The…key? Odd asked, eyes wide.

"The key—" Aisu groaned, rubbing her winded chest. "It was down there."

"It was down? Not up?" Odd asked, exasperated.

"You okay?" Ulrich asked, helping Yumi down from her much shortened ledge. Odd jumped down next to him.

"I hit the platform when it was going up when I was in a free fall." She rubbed her chest. "Damn…that really hurt." Aisu finally straitened and took a deep breath of digital air. "We need to go." She swayed over to the place where her wrapped sword had risen and grabbed it. A steadying breath.

"Are you _sure_ you can go?" Yumi questioned. Aisu did not look at her. One split second later, however, she was next to Ulrich, waiting to go.

-000-000-000-

Aelita glanced at Aisu again. She discreetly rubbed her chest again. Why was it that Aisu felt pain as if it was in the real world, rather than just the short sting of Lyoko? Why was it so similar?

Aelita saw Odd glance at the A.I. He missed her rubbing her collarbone, but he knew that she was not completely okay. There was still that winded look in her eyes and her posture was a bit less straight and intimidating than usual. Now her shoulders were pulled foreword _just_ a fraction and there was a small curve to her back as if it would somehow let her chest be relieved of pressure.

As the team of warriors reached the end of the corridor, they were met by a ledge and a dead end. Ulrich saw Aisu look down.

"And we are doing what at this moment?" she enquired.

"Waiting." Yumi's blunt return held no answer for the forever learning A.I.

"Waiting for what?"

"This!" Aelita grabbed Aisu's arm and yanked her over the edge to land on the elevator which sped away without stopping. When they were deposited at the corridor leading to the Skidd, Aisu yanked her arm back before realizing how rude that gesture must have been. She quickly apologized for it in a hurried 'sorry' and sped away in the lead.

-000-000-000-

_I wonder what's going on at the super computer right now._ Jeremie thought wistfully. He had concluded that someone had probably hit the key even without too much trouble. But there was still the one twist in the problem.

Who was going to initiate the launch from the super computer?

Oh right.

Nobody would be able to. Did anyone (specifically that annoying A.I) even think about that? Not likely. Not likely at all. Jeremie checked his laptop to see if he could get into the super computer network access. Nothing. He was barred from watching their progress.

Where would the replika base be? Under the vast ocean? In a foreign country? An old abandoned warehouse? in a company building?

Jeremie had yet to find out. Jeremie would also place every last cent of his money to bet the group on Lyoko had barely made it to the skidd. And After that…it still came back to the issue of the launch. Nobody was there to launch the skidd. Not unless Aisu left someone behind. But then again…nobody else knew _how_ to launch the skidd. Even Aelita occasionally forgot the correct order of the code's complex system. Was _Aisu_ going to do the launch? Doubtful. She would _kill_ to be there.

_I would kill to be there._

But not even a sour mindset could let him know what was happening in the computer. Jeremie typed furiously, trying networking codes, firewall hacks, software breakers….anything! Nothing. Nothing but a blue pop-up window with clear print spelling 'Submarine Software Updated'.

_Wait…what?_

Jeremie clicked the message.

_Jeremie,_

_I have updated the Skidd in several ways. I have added another pod to the group, increased the torpedo accuracy, introduced more artillery to the pods, and updated the shield layers, created an in-computer launch, and gave the pods more battery life. I hope that these updates come into effect by the time you get to the super computer._

_Aisu_

Now that explained so much. That explained why Aisu was going on with the mission without him. Why she was risking so much.

But….

_But is the risk worth it?_

-000-000-000-

Aisu stepped lightly onto the newly designed pad that would transfer them all to their respective places on the skidd. She had made her place the very farthest place from the edge.

"What gives? There were five places before. Why are there six?" Odd exclaimed, stepping onto the pad as well. He skipped across to the one next to Aisu. It was true, where before there were four smaller pads set around a larger fifth, there were five smaller pads circled around the larger sixth creating a bit of a flower look.

"I redesigned them so that if we get William back—"

"When we get William back." Aelita interjected. Aisu frowned but continued anyway.

"W_hen _we get William back, he will have a place to stand and get transported as well." The team nodded in understanding. Then a note-worthy thought crossed Ulrich's mind.

"Hate to ask this guys…but…how are we getting transported to the skidd without Jeremie?" Ulrich's voice sounded doubtful as he and Yumi stepped on. Ulrich took his place by Odd, Yumi next by Ulruch. Aelita leapt on, going to the very center pad. All of the warriors gave a long look at Aisu. Aisu simply stood there, eyes looking up at the high ceiling above her. Then she opened her mouth and spoke in commanding voice:

"_Transfer: Skidd mission."_

In a rather brilliant flash of pure white light, all five of them disappeared.

-000-000-000-

_Wow. Late. VERY late. Well, the pole result is in. Most of you were wrong! All but one! Well…because I want to keep my age a secret, I won't say my actual age…I'm sorry!_

_Here we have a nice…filler…chapter._

_Ehhhhh…it isn't so great, I know._

_**PLEASE REVIEW!!!!**_


	15. AUTHOR NOTE PLEASE READ

Dear readers,

I am very sorry to announce that I will not be continuing my story 'Completely Alone' any longer. I apologize for not finishing it even though I swore I would. The story has come to the point where I have made too many mistakes and tried to add too many ideas to the story that ultimately were never useful and made the plot too heavy and destroyed any context that I tried to keep. If anyone is willing to take up the story, I will gladly tell them what the original idea was, but as I can guess nobody will want to. To the my reviewers, thank you very, _very _much for being nice and encouraging and to the readers who did not submit reviews, I am sorry that I disappointed you enough for you to ignore saying things that might help the plot.

Once again, I apologize from the bottom of my heart.

Dark Rose at Twilight


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